esophoria

[jodi4566]

My 12 year old was just diagnosed with esophoria from her eye doctor.  IS there anything that corrects this? Is there a chance she can outgrow this? Can this be part of a learning/reading problem she has encountered throughout the last several years?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

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[erezm]

I am 35 and diagnosed with esophoria just last year. I seem to had it impact my functioning for about 15 years but didn't know what it is. My prescription is only a prism of 2, and I wear the glasses only when driving.
Eye fatigue is an everyday thing. Driving is a little better with the prism glasses but still hard if more than 15 minutes long. I seem to be more sensitive to light in my eyes then others, I can't concentrate on speaking to someone if a light is behind him. Sometimes I contribute my condition to Too-Many-Computer-Hours, but I'm not sure about it. I am doing vision therapy, vergence base-in exercises, it does magic for a few minutes after the practice, but then it goes back to normal. I haven't practices long enough to know if it would help me or not.
I think that relaxation a few times a day is the only way to not suffer from it.

I would like to know if there are really cases were minor esophoria is relieved by vergence-in exercises.

Erez

[asco]

I have esophoria and it negatively impacts my life everyday. I experience significant eyestrain and fatigue especially after reading for a period of time. It hinders mydaily life and has been a discouragement for learning/ reading and I consider it an impairment. Anyone that claims to know otherwise can live in my shoes for a while.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

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[monatanamo]

I realize this comment comes many years after the original posting but I am writing this for those who are currently searching for answers to this problem.  I am a 53 year old female with this problem.  Unfortunately, it has worsened with age.  I have been told that where I am at there is nothing that can help except to wear glasses that magnify what I am reading.  I did very poorly in grade school.  I was the student who couldn't focus and stared out the window or around the room.  Yet, at home, I would seek out a book.  At home I was not under pressure to read at the rate we read at in school.  I was reading at a 12th grade level in 8th grade.  However, other grades did not reflect this ability.  High school was not much better.  I was more disciplined, and able to maintain the task at hand to get the work done, but my grades did not reflect my abilities.  I went back to university at the age of 37 with the goal of earning a bachelors in biology.  I graduated *** laude with a major emphasis along with a minor.  It took a lot of work!  I was at it most of my waking hours.  I would see other students do just as well, and often better than I was, out enjoying themselves.  The only time I took away from my studies was to go to work. I had to read and reread everything several times.  I still do.  It has nothing to do with intelligence and everything to do with how my eyes work and send messages to my brain.  This is a real condition.  I have been helped through reading glasses.  The couple of opthomologists that I have gone to have said the same thing - magnification is the only thing that could help.  However, nderstanding what is going on with my eyes has helped me by allowing me to not be so hard and critical of myself.  It has given me a new way to look at my situation and recognize the additional steps I need to take to continue to learn.  Don't be disheartened.  Learn about the condition, find ways to support and help yourself or the person you know that is struggling because of it.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

I totally disagree with AMD6509 there has not been any acceptable scientific study that shows that visual therapy helps esophoria. You will spend a fortunate paying an optometrist for so much hocus-pocus that has no benefit.

Optometrists spend a lot of time and money selling teachers and others that work with children on the benefits of their pseudo-scientifci "visual training". I have had parents spend over $8000 on visual training to help their child read when what they needed was a remedial reading teacher.

JCH MD

[Amd6509]

Hi Jodi4566,
I am a speech and language pathologist. Esophoria is common in children and can be improved through vision therapy to strengthen the eye muscles. It can cause reading difficulties. Esophoria will cause eye strain as the child continually has to refocus the eyes and place print closer to their face. Your child is seeing print as smaller and must compensate. When your child is using undue effort to focus, he/she is not able to place the effort on extracting meaning from what is being read. This will impede reading comprehension and could possibly discourage him/her from reading. Your child is using reading to learn. This may cause your child to fall behind in school because we gain new information and develop vocabulary through reading.

I would research vision therapy to remediate this condition. I hope this helps!

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

Esophoria is quite common and usually assymptomatic. Unless it breaks down into a esotrophia (eyes always cross) nothing needs to be done. No it would not cause reading/learning problems.

JCH MD