Does your child have a tendency to tilt his or her head when reading or looking closely at something? Have there been complaints of neck and shoulder pain? Before taking your child to the chiropractor, consider whether the underlying cause might be a vision problem. At The Neuro Visual Center of New York, neck and shoulder pain are some of the most common symptoms we observe in patients with vertical heterophoria (VH), an eye muscle strain condition.
What Is Vertical Heterophoria?
Your sense of sight relies on many factors, not the least of which is the perfect vertical alignment of your eyes. If one of your eyes is even slightly higher than the other, you will see two images rather than one—which the brain rejects. To “fix” the problem, the brain forces the little muscles in your eyes to work extra hard to compensate for the misalignment.
Over time, all this overexertion causes your eye muscles to become strained and fatigued, leading to VH. Symptoms of VH include neck and shoulder pain, headaches and dizziness, anxiety, trouble focusing, difficulty reading, blurred vision, balance issues, and more. Unfortunately, because many of these symptoms can be caused by other medical conditions, people with BVD are often misdiagnosed.
How Can an Eye Condition Affect the Neck and Shoulders?
If you or your child is experiencing neck and shoulder pain, you probably aren’t expecting the problem to be related to your eyes. Yet neck and shoulder pain are some of the most common symptoms associated with VH.
People with VH often tilt their head as a subconscious way of correcting the double vision caused by the misalignment of their eyes. Over time, this tilting motion puts a strain on the neck and shoulders, leading to chronic pain in these areas. In severe cases, this can even throw the spine out of alignment. While visiting a chiropractor or massage therapist may provide temporary relief, the pain will soon return if the underlying vision problem is not addressed.
Our Treatment
If your child exhibits neck and shoulder pain, as well as any other symptoms of VH, like headaches and dizziness or trouble focusing, bring them to The Neuro Visual Center of New York. We conduct a detailed exam to determine whether VH is the root cause of the symptoms.
We treat VH and other binocular vision disorders with aligning lenses. The aligning lenses correct the misalignment in the eyes so that the eye muscles no longer have to overexert themselves. Patients who have undergone our treatment have seen their symptoms significantly reduced or even completely eliminated. Our treatment has literally changed people’s lives
To learn more about the connection between neck and shoulder pain and VH, or to schedule an appointment, call The Neuro Visual Center of New York today at (516) 224-4888.
Do you have any colleagues in the Phoenix AZ area you can recommend for toddler head tilt?
Please visit the Vision Specialist of Michigan website for a doctor closest to you.