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Accepting New Patients!
Ithaca Eye Care is accepting new patients at our new office conveniently located near Community Corners in Ithaca, New York. Please call 607-257-1500 to schedule your appointment. Call today to arrange your visit with our family-friendly, caring, and professional doctor and staff. We're here to serve all your eye care needs.
Binocular Vision Dysfunction
Do you suffer from car or motion sickness, headaches, lightheadedness, dizziness, disorientation, or anxiety?
Have you visited numerous specialists, taken various tests, only to lack a diagnosis or solution?
You may suffer Binocular Vision Dysfunction
In Binocular Vision Dysfunction, the line of sight from one eye falls slightly out of alignment with the line of sight from the other. This misalignment can be vertical, horizontal, or both, causing strain as your eyes constantly try to achieve better focus. This extra burden on the eye muscles results in dizziness, headaches, disorientation, neck aches, and reading difficulties. These common symptoms are not commonly thought to be associated with vision, but they are.
There are three forms of Binocular Vision Dysfunction: vertical heterophoria, superior oblique palsy, and horizontal misalignment. The corrective measures taken by the eye muscles to overcome misalignment can lead to strain, fatigue, and symptoms associated with BVD. Head tilt, used to minimize misalignment and avoid double vision, is known to occur in vertical heterophoria and superior oblique palsy. The brain takes a corrective measure by tilting the head slightly, resulting in neck pain and other BVD symptoms.
Symptoms of BVD
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Headaches/migraines
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Dizziness
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Anxiety
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Panic attacks (especially when driving)
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Head tilt toward one shoulder
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Neck aches
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Motion sickness
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Clumsiness and poor depth perception
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Walking/balance problems
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Difficulty reading and concentrating
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Closing or covering an eye to read
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Nausea
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Convergence insufficiency
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Light sensitivity
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Blurred, shadowed, or double vision
Common causes of BVD are normal facial asymmetry or acquired facial asymmetry as a result of aging or head trauma damaging nerves to eye muscles and causing imbalance.
BVD may affect up to 70% of adults with persistent headaches, 30% of adults with anxiety, and 30% of adults with persistent symptoms from a concussion or traumatic brain injury. Therefore, it is critical to test for even small amounts of misalignment.
Often BVD is misdiagnosed or overlooked during a routine eye exam. Many eye doctors spend very little time testing how well your eyes work together (binocular vision). Even if these tests are performed, they only identify major misalignments and double vision but often miss small amounts of misalignment.
Dr. Boscia is one of 11 eye doctors in the country certified in specialized treatment for BVD and is thrilled to offer a solution to her patients.
At Ithaca Eye Care, patients with signs of BVD will undergo a thorough Neuro-Visual Evaluation, including assessment of small amounts of eye misalignments. Problems with near vision, far vision and alignment will be corrected using specialized prismatic glasses, resulting in a reduction or sometimes elimination of symptoms. The average person experiences a 30-50% reduction of symptoms almost immediately and a 70-80% reduction of symptoms over the course of several visits as the prismatic prescription is fine-tuned and customized. On average, patients complete the treatment in just 2 to 3 months.
How do you know if you suffer from BVD? Fill out this questionnaire and we will contact you for an evaluation.
Does your child have BVD? Fill out this questionnaire.
Click here for more information on children dealing with BVD.
Click here for more information about BVD. http://vision-specialists.com/
