binocular vision dysfunction

If you have binocular vision dysfunction, or when the eyes become misaligned, your brain struggles and overcompensates to keep the eyes working together. As a result, you experience physical symptoms, like chronic dizziness and headaches, which can sometimes contribute to migraines. There are many types of binocular vision dysfunctions, such as: Vertical Heterophoria (VH), Superior Oblique Palsy (SOP), Inferior Oblique Palsy, Esophoria, Exophoria, and Convergence insufficiency. All are treated in slightly different manners.

In addition to binocular vision dysfunction, another condition named aniseikonia can also be a contributing factor to dizziness, headache and even depth perception issues. Aniseikonia is typically caused by anisometropia, which is when your right and left eyes have much different visual prescriptions, causing your brain to perceive the world completely differently, from one eye versus the other. This condition will worsen your binocular vision dysfunction, worsen your depth perception, and therefore worsen your dizziness and headaches.

If you are reading this, chances are you have had little or no relief after seeing a Neurologist, had an MRI, seen an Ear Nose and Throat Doctor (ENT), Chiropractor, and other specialists. You may have tried various medications that have had little to no impact on your symptoms. Further, you may have even seen ophthalmologists and optometrists that have told you, “your eyes are fine.” Most tests during a typical eye exam are not sensitive enough to uncover such small eye misalignments, such as vertical heterophoria and others mentioned.

Sometimes patients can feel isolated with these symptoms and feel that even their friends and family don’t believe them. Some will even report symptoms of depersonalization and can develop agoraphobia in extreme cases. We are here to tell you that you are not alone.

Dr. Zucker, NeuroVisual Optometrist, is passionate about this work, and if he finds you have any amount of binocular vision dysfunction, he will make it his mission to relieve your symptoms and positively impact your life. He will take you through a series of cutting edge binocular vision tests, performing many eye tests you have likely never seen before.

If we uncover that your eyes have a vertical and/or horizontal misalignment, and/or aniseikonia, you may be a good candidate for NeuroVisual and/or aniseikonic treatment with personalized, micro-prism eyeglass lenses.

Microprism is just a term for small amounts of prism that are precisely ground into eyeglass lenses. When the correct amount prism is customized in your glasses lenses, it allows your eyes to work significantly better as a team, to improve your binocular vision dysfunction and therefore relieve your symptoms.

The beauty about this testing is that many times you will know during the exam if our NeuroVisual treatment will help you. Once Dr. Zucker uncovers the correct amount of prism that is needed, he will make up a pair of demo lenses that you will actually wear at your appointment. Many patients with dizziness and headaches will tell us they feel 50-80% improvement in their symptoms in just 10-20 minutes after wearing the demo glasses. And while many patients notice an improvement right away, others may need some more time to adjust.

We are here to truly help. If you are interested in learning more about our NeuroVisual treatment options, or suspect you are suffering from binocular vision dysfunction (BVD), feel free to call us to speak with one of our highly trained professionals and/or complete this questionnaire to see if you’re a good candidate for our treatment.