FUNCTIONAL/BINOCULAR VISION EVALUATIONS

Accommodation is the ability of each eye to be able to focus accurately at various distances. Deficits in accommodation can result in blurry vision when performing close-up tasks, blurry vision when transitioning from near to far (such as when looking at the board and back to the paper on the desk), headaches, or fatigue.

Ocular motility is the ability for both eyes to move coherently from left to right, up and down, etc. The quality of your eye movements is directly related to the neural connections to the brain as well as the integrity of the eye muscles themselves. Accurate eye tracking is necessary to be able to read accurately. Deficits in ocular motility can result in skipping words or lines when reading, having trouble staying on line, poor reading comprehension, dizziness, or inconsistent eye movements.

Vergence is the ability to use both eyes at the same time to converge (bring eyes in closer while reading) or diverge (bring eyes straight to view things far away). Poor vergence can result in double vision, headaches, avoidance of close-up tasks, eye strain, and closing or covering one eye when performing certain tasks. It can also result in poor depth perception.

Depth perception is dependent on the ability to use both eyes together at the highest level. Deficiencies in depth perception can result in poor confidence when driving at night, poor sports performance, lack of 3D vision, or headaches/eye strain during 3D movies.

Ocular posture is the resting position of the two eyes. This test is performed to determine if there is an eye turn (strabismus) present or if the resting position of the two eyes is extremely skewed. Adequate eye position is required to avoid headaches, eye strain, fatigue and double vision.

Dr. Patel will check to ensure there are no underlying causes impacting binocular vision that may require simultaneous treatment. These conditions may include strabismus (eye turn), amblyopia (lazy eye), cataracts, or other ocular diseases as well as systemic conditions (diabetic vision problems or thyroid dysfunction related vision problems). Rarely, life threatening neurological disorders can also result in poor binocular vision.

Patients who have issues with how their two eyes work together may suffer from a myriad of symptoms including:

• Fatigue or eye strain
• Avoidance of reading or close-up tasks
• Blurred vision even though he or she may have been told they have perfect vision
• Closing or covering one eye when reading or on the computer
• Double vision
• Headaches
• Poor depth perception
• Re-reading text for comprehension
• Skipping words or lines when reading
• And more – click here to see a full list of symptoms

Click here to see if you or someone you know might benefit from a functional vision evaluation.