Medical Questions » Epilepsy Questions » Question No. 324
| Question: | The doctor is concerned about my grand-daughter' s squint. What is a squint, and is it serious? |
| Answer: | A squint (or strabismus, to give it its correct medical name), occurs when the two eyes do not align equally when looking at a distant object. One eye appears to be looking in one direction, while the other is looking in a different direction. This is quite normal when looking at something very close, as borh eyes turn in to look at it.
If a child does have a significant squint, the brain will gradually suppress the sight in one eye, to avoid double vision. The affected eye may never learn to see again, resulting in the child becoming blind in that eye.
The correction of a squint at an early age is therefore vital. Treatment usually involves prescribing special spectacles to correct the problem. If the squint is more severe, the good eye will be covered for a period every day, as well as using the glasses. This strengthens the vision in the poor eye and prevents blindness in that eye. In marked degrees of squint, it is necessary to operate on the tiny muscles that control eye movement to shorten those that are not pulling the eye around far enough.
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