What is Binocular Visual Dysfunction?
Having binocular vision means that your eyes are successfully working together to see an object as one clear image. With binocular visual dysfunction (BVD), your eyes cannot align with each other so they send separate images to the brain. Someone with BVD may be unable to easily fuse them into one clear image.
With BVD, the eye muscles and the brain will strain to correct the misalignment. This effort to see a single, clear image often results in:
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Seeing double
- Neck pain
- Reading problems
- Difficulty with depth perception
- Anxiety
- Tension
- Blurry vision
- Imbalance
BVD affects people of all ages. It can hinder an adult’s performance at work, making reading and other vision-centered tasks, such as driving, a chore. Diagnosing and treating children with BVD early on will allow children to see and read comfortably and meet the demands of school and sports.
Diagnosing & Treating BVD
Because someone with BVD may successfully see one image (albeit by straining), and otherwise possesses clear vision and good eye health, general practitioners, ophthalmologists and even neurologists may be baffled as to what the eye problem is. In addition, the eyes’ misalignment often is so minimal as to go undetected.
The optometrists at KW NeuroVision are experienced in diagnosing and treating patients with BVD. Vision therapy is tailored to each patient to train and develop brain-eye communication. The therapy will help your eyes move properly, stay aligned, and work as a team. The result: Your eyes will see an object as one image, providing you with clear, comfortable vision. A vision therapy regimen can run from a few weeks to several months.
As part of the treatment, Dr. Kimberly Dolman may also prescribe eyeglasses with prisms. The prism glasses help the eyes and brain to create a unified image, sometimes immediately.
Our practice serves patients from Kitchener & Waterloo region, Cambridge, Guelph, and Stratford, Ontario and surrounding communities.
References:
- https://www.vision-specialists.com/binocular-vision-dysfunction/what-is-bvd/
- https://opto.ca/health-library/binocular-vision
