Exophoria

Overview

Exophoria is an eye condition in which one eye drifts uncontrollably outwards. Exophoria is a problem with eye coordination and may occur due to issues with the muscles and nerves that control eye movements. Your two eyes each see at slightly different angles. Your brain automatically blends the images from each eye to create a single image instead of double vision. With exophoria, one of your eyes drifts so far out of coordination with the other that your brain can’t blend the two images. The exact cause isn’t yet known, but the problem usually lies in the eye muscles. Exophoria symptoms usually first appear early in life, from elementary to high school. It tends to happen while you’re looking at things close to your eyes, like reading, writing, or using a computer. It’s also likely to happen while you cover one of your eyes. To find problems with eye coordination, they’ll likely perform a cover test. This involves covering one of your eyes slowly or quickly. They’ll observe your eye movements during the process. The doctor may put a prism near your eye to see if it improves your vision.Managing exophoria involves minimizing symptoms, while treating exophoria targets the underlying cause of the problem.In some cases of exophoria, specialized lenses or prisms are all it takes to manage symptoms and increase productivity. But in the vast majority of cases, the most effective way to manage and treat exophoria is a personalized vision therapy program coupled with specialized lenses.Vision therapy is a tailor-made set of eye exercises that help the eyes and brain work seamlessly as a team.

Symptoms

Symptoms of exophoria may include:

sore or tired eyes
rubbing the eyes
double vision
blurred vision
difficulty concentrating
difficulty reading, such as losing the place or the sensation of words floating around
headaches
squinting
closing one eye to see something

Depending on the type of exophoria, people may find it difficult to focus on objects close-up or in the distance.

Causes

Issues with eye coordination may occur due to poor eye muscle control. If eye muscle control does not develop properly, it can lead to poor coordination of the eyes. In some cases, eye coordination problems may occur due to injury or disease, although this is rare.

Muscles and nerves help to control eye movements. If these muscles and nerves do not communicate properly, it can lead to problems controlling eye movements. This may result in the eye drifting outward and being unable to turn inward enough.

Diagnosing Exophoria

An eye doctor can diagnose exophoria with a vision test. They’ll also ask about your symptoms.‌

To find problems with eye coordination, they’ll likely perform a cover test. This involves covering one of your eyes slowly or quickly. They’ll observe your eye movements during the process. The doctor may put a prism near your eye to see if it improves your vision.‌

A child’s first eye exam should take place when they’re six months old, again at age three, then before they start the first grade. School-offered eye exams don’t always test for exophoria and other eye coordination problems. Visit a vision specialist’s office to get a full exam.

Sometimes, a child with exophoria may be misdiagnosed with another condition like ADHD, learning disabilities, and dyslexia. These conditions have similar symptoms, like difficulty reading and concentrating. Exophoria isn’t always obvious. It may be the underlying reason for these symptoms.

Treatments for Exophoria

‌You can easily reverse exophoria with consistent treatment. Some common treatment methods include:

Glasses. You can get special glasses that have prisms in the lenses. These prisms can help reverse the outward eye movement of exophoria and lessen eye strain. Prism lenses ease symptoms, but they don’t fully fix exophoria.

Eye exercises. You may have to physically train your eyes to move in coordination with games and other tools. Some of these exercises can take place at home. One common exercise is a pencil push-up. With this exercise, you move a pencil towards your face from arm’s length and try to avoid seeing double as you look at it.

Other exercises can be more effective when they take place in a professional vision care office. A specialist can observe you while you perform exercises and keep track of your progress.

Outlook

Treatment can help to correct exophoria. With treatment, people may notice an improvement in eye coordination right away, or it may take 12 weeks or longerTrusted Source to notice improvements in vision.

People may also find that symptoms reoccur with a lack of sleep, illness, or activities that trigger their exophoria, such as focusing on close-up activities like reading or using a computer.

Global Treatment Services