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Squint (Strabismus) : What Is A Squint?

A squint, or strabismus, occurs when the eyes do not point in the same direction, with one eye often turning inward. About 2-3% of children are affected by a squint, which can lead to double vision or amblyopia if not treated. Treatment depends on the cause but may include wearing glasses, patching the stronger eye, eye drops, or surgery to correct muscle and tendon positions if other methods do not fully address the squint.

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Subhajit Basak
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19 views

Squint (Strabismus) : What Is A Squint?

A squint, or strabismus, occurs when the eyes do not point in the same direction, with one eye often turning inward. About 2-3% of children are affected by a squint, which can lead to double vision or amblyopia if not treated. Treatment depends on the cause but may include wearing glasses, patching the stronger eye, eye drops, or surgery to correct muscle and tendon positions if other methods do not fully address the squint.

Uploaded by

Subhajit Basak
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Squint (strabismus)

lookafteryoureyes.org/eye-conditions/squint/

What is a squint?
A squint occurs when your eyes don’t point in the same direction. The most common type of squint
is where one eye turns slightly inwards, towards your nose. Sometimes the eye may turn out or –
very occasionally –up or down, while the other looks ahead. This can happen in either eye. If a
young child has a squint it is important that they are examined by an optometrist to help prevent
the eye that does not look straight from becoming lazy.

Who is affected by a squint?


About 2-3% of children will have a squint, and you are more likely to have a squint if it runs in your
family. Children who are long sighted may have a squint without their glasses because their eyes
over focus to see things.

Adults may occasionally develop a squint. If this happens they are likely to see double, and they
should be examined as soon as possible by an optometrist.

What are the symptoms of a squint (strabismus)?


If you have a squint, because both eyes are not looking in the same direction, you will see double. If
the squint develops in early childhood, the child will learn to ignore the squinting eye to stop them
seeing double. This can lead to the squinting eye becoming lazy (amblyopia), so it is important that
this is treated as soon as possible.

Anyone who notices a recent onset squint should arrange to see their optometrist as soon as
possible.

How do you treat a squint?


Treatment depends on what is causing the squint and includes:

wearing glasses – if a child is long sighted, correcting their long sight may also correct their
squint
patching – if the vision is worse in one eye than the other, we may patch the good eye to
encourage the weaker eye to be used
eye drops – if the vision is worse in one eye than the other, eye drops may be used to blur the
vision in the good eye to encourage the child to use their worse eye, in a similar way to
patching
surgery – if wearing glasses does not fully correct the squint, surgery can be performed as
early as a few months of age.
Squint advice, information and support
British and Irish Orthoptic Society

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