Today is World Orthoptic Day! Our orthoptists are highly skilled rehabilitation professionals!
What is orthoptics?
Orthoptics is one of the crucial fields of eye care that focuses on diagnosing, managing, and treating defects of binocular vision.Orthoptists are allied health professionals who specialize in the study of ocular motility and visual development. Their primary role is to investigate and diagnose visual system dysfunctions involving vision, eye movement, eye alignment, and binocularity in children and adults. Orthoptics focuses on the non-surgical treatment of amblyopia and strabismus, but the expertise and scope go far beyond and include research and teaching.
What do orthoptists do?
Orthoptists possess specialized knowledge and skills to diagnose and treat vision problems, they work closely with neuro-ophthalmologists and pediatric and adult strabismus ophthalmologists. Orthoptists use exercises, specialized lenses, prisms, occlusion therapy, and other novel approaches to help patients overcome vision challenges, leading to improved eye coordination and overall vision health.
Similarly, orthoptists treat eye movement disorders as well as difficulties with how the eyes work together. Furthermore, treatment includes nonsurgical measures, normally the exercises that strengthen the eye muscles.
More specifically, orthoptists are experts in helping individuals with eye conditions like misaligned eyes (strabismus), double vision (diplopia), and lazy eye (amblyopia). They utilize specialized techniques, tools, and exercises to improve visual function, leading to improved eye coordination and overall vision health.
These therapies can help align the eyes, gain vision in a weaker eye, and encourage binocular vision through exercises, prisms, and occlusion techniques, resulting in improved depth perception and a more accurate interpretation of the visual world.
Like all of us in UMMAP, orthoptists are one of the many hands of comprehensive care at Michigan Medicine, their work can go unrecognized. Let’s change that!
Katie Patterson – Orthoptist at the Kellogg Eye Center/KEC at BCSC & UMMAP Steward