Esophoria also known as Divergence Insufficiency is a condition in which our eyes are naturally more in than out when viewing something near or far away.
How do Symptoms of Esophoria Occur?
When your eyes are closed, they are in their natural position. Eyes are naturally pointed in when they're resting, but when you wake up they have to move out to see straight, which can strain the visual system and cause many symptoms.
Esophoria is characterised by the following symptoms:
- Eyestrain
- Headaches
- Tired eyes
- Double vision
- Motion sickness
- Tendency to close one eye
If you notice any of these symptoms or experience sudden changes in your vision and find it difficult for you to perform your daily activities, please schedule an eye exam with your eye doctor
How is Esophoria Diagnosed?
Esophoria is an easy condition to diagnose. The first step in diagnosing esophoria is to visually examine the eyes for any alignment problems, which may include tropias and phorias. In order to pinpoint the problem, a series of cover tests are conducted. These include the:
- Cover-uncover test
- Alternate cover test
- Alternate prism cover test
How can Esophoria be Treated?
Multiple studies have demonstrated the efficacy of in office vision therapy for treating esophoria. Here are some common treatment methods:
- Vision Therapy - The purpose of vision therapy is to teach you how to quickly and efficiently team both eyes together. The key focus of vision therapy for esophoria is divergence. Various guided tasks or exercises are used to work on critical skills such as recognizing poor eye coordination, improving convergence ability, improving divergence ability, and adjusting quickly between convergence and divergence. Esophoria usually requires 30 hours of office therapy under the guidance of a vision therapist and functional optometrist.
- Prisms - here is some evidence that prismatic lenses can be effective for esophoria, and you may benefit from prismatic lenses significantly. Prisms are often oriented in a base-out direction, which decreases the divergence demand placed on your visual system.
- Eyeglasses - When a patient has a high prescription for glasses (often one for far-sightedness or hyperopia) or significant imbalance between his or her eyes, glasses may affect the patient's eye position.
Schedule an Eye Exam
Esophoria can cause problems in your life, particularly if you do intricate activities, or if you read a lot or do anything that requires sustained attention for a long period of time. You should have your functional optometrist do a functional vision exam if you have been told that you have esophoria or display symptoms that indicate that you have this condition.
