Strabismus is a condition in which the eyes are misaligned and viewing at different directions. One eye may look straight ahead, while the other eye turns inward, outward, upward or downward. You may always notice the misalignment, or it may come and go. The turned eye may straighten at times and the straight eye may turn.

Strabismus is a common condition among children. It occurs equally in males and females. Strabismus may run in families. However, many people with strabismus have no relatives with the problem.

It is a myth and belief that strabismus is lucky, but it has to be corrected at a very early age to prevent vision-loss in future.

How do the eyes work together?

With normal vision, both eyes focus at the same spot. The brain then fuses the two pictures into a single three-dimensional image. This three-dimensional image gives us depth perception. When one eye turns, two different pictures are sent to the brain. In a young child, the brain learns to ignore the image of the misaligned eye and sees only the image from the straight or better eye. The child then loses depth perception and the unused eye becomes a lazy eye.

Adults who develop strabismus often have double vision because the brain is already trained to receive images from both eyes and cannot ignore the image from the turned eye.