Over a year ago, Dr. Samantha Slotnick , a guest blogger, wrote about strabismus surgery. She emphasized the point that strabismus is not only an eye muscle problem, it’s a brain problem. Even if the eyes are aligned surgically, the brain has to learn how to overcome adaptations in order to put those two images together, into something meaningful.
That blog post has generated more comments than any other! People around the world are asking for advice and help locating developmental optometrists. This is one of the goals of this blog– to provide information and perhaps a different perspective on vision, vision problems and treatment for those problems. The number of views, questions, and comments that were initiated by that blog post made it very clear that we were successful– we got what we wished for!
Dr. Slotnick has replied to every single comment that was generated by that blog post. In most cases, she was able to help find developmental optometrists around the world to get these patients and their parents the help they are seeking. But in a few cases, there are no developmental optometrists nearby. Most recently, Maria from Chile requested a referral to see if she might benefit from vision therapy. But there are no doctors in Chile that provide vision therapy. Be careful what you wish for…… yes, we achieved our goal of raising awareness of the power of vision therapy, but we don’t have the manpower to provide these services to everyone requiring them. I can only hope that the law of supply and demand will be applicable here– the greater the need, the greater the number of doctors who will provide developmental optometric services. Developmental optometrists are also finding innovative ways to help patients in far away places. For example, providing vision therapy via Skype might not be ideal, but it is becoming an option that some doctors are starting to explore.
The take-away message is, keep those cards and letters coming! Keep asking questions, let us know what is important to you, what do you want to know and understand. Let’s keep increasing the DEMAND for developmental optometry and vision therapy, then we can watch the SUPPLY grow across the globe. And don’t forget to use the locate-a-doctor function on covd.org, maybe there is a developmental optometrist around the corner.
Mindsight 
Well its been a month since my strabismus surgery to correct my extropia. Left eye. It was way out there! Well i still have double vision just that the images overlap one another. Will my eyes ever fuse? Or will my left eye drift out again. Im sad they arent fusing. Any advice is appreciated.
The College of Optometrists in Vision Development is an organization of professionals who specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of visual conditions that can have significant impact on the lives of our patients. This includes very complex disorders such as strabismus and amblyopia. Our goal is to reach out to patients and potential patients around the world to help them make better decisions when seeking eye and vision care. Due to the complexity of these conditions and the uniqueness of every person’s visual and health status, we cannot offer diagnosis or treatment advice in response to comments or questions on this blog. You might consider reaching out to a COVD member directly. Perhaps our membership directory can help you find a doctor: locate.covd.org Good luck on your journey!
Dear Dr. Mozlin,
Thanks for revisiting this blog. I, too, have been thrilled with our success! This blog has helped patients learn about their options, and has provided support and contacts to many patients in need of strabismus management. Additionally, the contributing patients have provided their own stories of struggle and success. I believe it is supportive to know that there is a community of people who can relate to one another across the globe through this blog.
Thank you, as well, to Maria Paz, for her efforts in raising awareness and translating to people in her community. (I am looking into some options for you!)
In under-served areas of the world, it would be reasonable to ask if “mission trips” could be created to provide vision therapy services. However, the nature of case management in these specialized cases would require ongoing support and dedication from the managing doctor/therapist. It requires a doctor-patient or therapist-patient relationship with feedback and planning. Unlike primary care optometry, vision therapy would be very hard to offer on a “mission trip” basis. And it would be far more challenging to have a meaningful brief trip to support patients with strabismus.
However, it would be possible to bring educational “missions” to under-served areas in order to help teach doctors and therapists how to provide vision therapy to patients with specialized needs.
Alternatively, perhaps vision therapy can reach new populations with a satellite approach, using ongoing support and international case-supervision via video conferencing (like Skype). The question is, what sort of professional(s) would be best suited to provide vision therapy, with additional training?
Optometry simply does not have a parallel in many areas of the world. The vision therapy side of optometry is quite different from ophthalmology, which is more medically oriented or “eyeball-oriented.” In the United States, the closest allied fields are providing behaviorally-oriented support. These would include occupational therapy and neuropsychology/ cognitive therapy.
What are the parallel fields in South America? other parts of Europe?
Perhaps it is time to consider our options for expanding support?
Thoughts?
Dr. Samantha Slotnick
Dr Samantha, I was the person from Chile that ask for the help, here in my country, the only solution you’ll find is through surgery and you always get the same explanation, “This will only be a cosmetic solution” I know this because I’ve asked to many ophthalmologist and even to the best ophthalmologist here in Chile, and it’s always the same… I haven’t got a surgery because I was afraid they’ve also tell me that maybe I will even need another surgery! They really have no idea about this method…
I’m also hoping that more doctors around the world could provide this method. I really want to thank Dr Samantha and the COVD for raising awareness about this therapy which it’s a fundamental part for the goal 🙂 we need the world to know about this!
I will raise awareness about this in my own language and of course telling people about this blog and all the information that they can find here :)! I’m sure that once people know about this method the demand will grow immediately because this method it’s everything that we were waiting for 🙂
Skype sounds like a great idea for people that live very far away like me!
Thanks again! and God Bless
Maria
Excellent…a tipping point for Optometric Vision Therapy seems to be approaching…dare I say it is approaching a “mainstream” mindset. Hooray and hats off to the docs that spent years having to fight the uphill battle so that we can now ride the wave with ease. Love this.