Strabismus is a common eye disease in children, so what is strabismus? Can strabismus be treated? How can it be treated? When is the right time to treat it? First of all, what is strabismus? Normally, when we look straight ahead, both eyes are in the middle position, and the position of both eyes is symmetrical when we turn in all directions. When one eye is centered while the other eye’s black eye is off-centered, it is called strabismus. When this condition persists, it is called dominant strabismus, sometimes normal and sometimes intermittent strabismus. Strabismus can be divided into internal strabismus (commonly known as crossed eyes), external strabismus (commonly known as glancing eyes), upward strabismus, and downward strabismus. Patients with intermittent exotropia may exhibit only a preference to close one eye in sunlight. Some patients with congenital vertical strabismus may exhibit head tilted vision. So how does strabismus develop? Some strabismus is related to genetics, some strabismus is related to abnormal muscle development, and some strabismus is related to refractive abnormalities. In farsighted patients, both near and far vision are blurred, and when looking at the near side, excessive pooling occurs, resulting in internal strabismus (normal people need to use accommodation when looking at near objects, while using pooling to appear bilaterally). Nearsighted patients often do not need to adjust when looking at near objects, which results in insufficient pooling and often causes exotropia. In some patients, one or more muscles of the eye may become impaired due to fever, trauma, intracranial lesions, or myasthenia gravis, causing the eye movements of both eyes to become unbalanced, resulting in strabismus. What are the effects of strabismus on the eyes? Because of the asymmetrical position of both eyes, strabismus patients may have image interference when looking at objects. In order to see objects clearly and eliminate interference, the brain may inhibit the active inhibition of one eye, resulting in the inhibition of the eye to be used, vision loss, and “laziness” and the formation of amblyopia (that is, wearing glasses can not be corrected to more than 0.9 vision). Another serious consequence is that both eyes cannot look at the object at the same time, the brain forms the image of the object seen by one eye, the visual function of both eyes is destroyed, there is no stereo vision (stereo vision is closely related to our work and study, drawing, learning three-dimensional geometry, drawing, etc. all need to use stereo vision). Strabismus treatment The purpose of strabismus treatment is not only to improve the appearance, but most importantly to improve vision and restore binocular vision, so once a child is diagnosed with strabismus, early treatment is needed. The former includes glasses, trigeminal lenses, and training. Those who can correct their strabismus with glasses should go to the hospital for regular review, while those who cannot or only partially correct their strabismus with glasses should have early surgery according to their visual acuity. For those whose strabismus is too small to reach the starting point of surgical treatment but affects function, trigonometry can be worn to protect visual function. Some patients with exotropia can be treated by collection training at an early stage, and those whose training is ineffective can be operated at a later stage. In fact, strabismus surgery is to adjust the position and balance of the muscles so that the eye returns to its normal position, the surgery is generally not dangerous, it is a surgery outside the eye, will not enter the eye, no need to cut the eyelid will not affect vision and beauty, most strabismus patients can be corrected at once, even if not completely corrected there is no effect. In addition, some parents are concerned about the danger of having their children operated under general anesthesia, and whether it will affect their intelligence. In fact, general anesthesia is generally safe, as it only makes the child temporarily unconscious and does not affect the development of the brain. Although strabismus can be treated, we should still actively prevent it, use the eyes reasonably and develop good habits; pay attention to scientific nutritional diet to make the eyes develop in a balanced way; early refractive screening to reduce the incidence of strabismus and prevent it before it happens, so that every child can have a pair of bright eyes.