OTs want to know: How do we communicate to pediatricians on vision therapy

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Leonard J. Press on June 17, 2010 at 10:39am

Fantastic question, Denise! Actually, just the fact that pediatricians adopt a positive view of VT in general is a step in the right direction, as compared to the formal position of the American Academy of Pediatrics. But I digress ...

A powerful statement is that the "gold standard" research on VT to date, the CITT funded by NEI/NIH, showed that home therapy alone is no better than placebo - and that office based OVT is significantly superior to both. Therefore, until someone conducts a study showing that their form of home VT alone is better than placebo therapy, why would a pediatrician sanction "an optometrist just giving out home exercises and calling it vision therapy" as compared to office-based VT by an OD?

- Leonard J, Press, O.D., FCOVD, FAAO

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Dan L. Fortenbacher on June 18, 2010 at 6:08pm

Denise,
Another good way to tell communicate to pediatricians about what is best for patients is to show send them a link to a "before" and "after" video of a patient who was treated with office-based vision therapy for convergence insufficiency.

Here is a good example of patient Jack who was actually referred by his pediatrician for office-based vision therapy. Here is Jack back in January as a new patient before treatment: Click here

Here is Jack after completing office-based vision therapy: Click here

And here is Jack with his graduation from vision therapy picture:

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