Esotropia is a medical condition where the eyes turn inward, causing a cross-eyed appearance. It can affect one or both eyes and can be treated with surgery, corrective lenses, or vision therapy. There are different types, including congenital and accommodative esotropia.
Esotropia is a medical condition that affects the eyes. When a person has esotropia, their eyes turn inward, making them appear cross-eyed. This disorder can affect only one eye or it can affect both at the same time. Esotropia is rarely diagnosed, and treatment methods include surgery, corrective lenses, and vision therapy.
There are several types of esotropia. One type is called congenital esotropia and appears in babies from birth to six months of age. Interestingly, most babies are born with eyes that aren’t perfectly straight; during the first few years of life, it is common to have one or both eyes slightly open, but this corrects by the time the baby reaches three months of age. Sometimes, a child’s eyes appear to be turned inward but aren’t truly misaligned; this tends to happen because the bridge of the nose develops slowly, causing some of the whites of the eyes to appear hidden and giving the child a slightly cross-eyed look. In true cases of congenital esotropia, inward rolling of the eyes is pronounced and the misalignment becomes apparent when the baby is between two and four months old.
Infantile esotropia is another congenital form of the disorder. It is present at birth or may appear later in the child’s first year of life. The condition occurs because the section of the brain that affects eye control doesn’t develop exactly as it should. When a person has this condition, the brain may not process visual input from that particular eye. Children with this condition may also have cross fixation, meaning they see things on the left side with their right eye and use their right eye to see things on the left side.
Accommodative esotropia is a form of the disorder that often appears when a child is about two years old and occurs when the eyes try to focus and see things clearly. It is often accompanied by farsightedness, which makes it necessary for the eyes to make a greater effort to see things well. The effort the eyes make to focus is referred to as accommodation, and the eyes have to work harder to accommodate objects that are closer to the eyes. As they make this effort, their eyes may cross. Sometimes, some of the inward turn is due to accommodation while the rest is caused by the disturbance itself.
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