Strabismus can affect both children and adults, and occurs when the eyes are not aligned. As you may know, the misalignment can be very small, very large, or anywhere in between. By using prisms -- just like the prisms you learned about in science class -- we can measure the amount of misalignment, which helps to determine what is causing the strabismus, whether it's getting better over time, and how best to treat it.
Prisms come in different sizes, allowing us to measure eye misalignment.
Using prisms to measure any strabismus detected on the eye exam is a critical component of the eye exam. Although the prisms are held near the eyes, they don't hurt in any way, and it's possible to get useful measurements with prisms for the majority of patients. As your child grows, our ability to measure their eye misalignment will likely get even better, too.