Anonymous
Hi, Sue:
I cannot answer all of your questions, so others will have to contribute responses as well.
But as for the prisms: they adjust the light rays going to the eye to compensate for the misalignment. I do not believe that they do anything to the muscles themselves. We get double vision when the eye muscles cannot focus both eyes on the exact same spot. When one eye is off kilter, it is “looking” at a point slightly off from what the other eye is looking at. This creates a doubling when the brain interprets what the eyes are seeing. The prisms simply bend the light coming into the eyes in such a way that the focus is, once again, on the same point.
There is a surgery — one that is done under a local anesthetic — that adjusts for the misalignment caused by decompression surgeries. It is called “strabismus” surgery. With this surgery, the doctor adjusts “ties” along the eye muscles, which essentially pull the eye back into alignment. You need to be “awake” enough to tell the surgeon whether he/she has adjusted things properly. It is not, apparently, a surgery that requires much recovery time, and, as I said, it is done only with a local anesthetic.
I hope others will answer the questions I cannot. And I hope this information is clear.
Bobbi — NGDF Online Facilitator