To complete my study of Osteopathy, I am required to conduct a research study to provide data on the efficacy of osteopathy. I chose to treat children with strabismus, commonly referred to as crossed eyes, to see if osteopathic treatment could help straighten their eyes.
I was very happy to have met 3 wonderful children between the ages of 2-6 years of age with crossed eyes that agreed to participate in this study. The amount of eye deviation was measured before and after 4 global osteopathic treatments. I am excited to say that there was an average improvement of 5.3 prism diopters.
Because there were not enough subjects for a fully-powered study, there was no statistical significance found.
I am excited (and a little nervous) to defend my thesis and share my results with a jury from the Canadian College of Osteopathy on November 4th, 2016. I anticipate having my designation as an Osteopathic Manual Practitioner DO(MP) by early December 2016.
Impressive. Good Luck!
As an orthodontist with many years of experience, I have been especially interested in balancing the facial and cranial structures to minimise or eliminate any asymmetry.. An outcome in several cases has been an improvement in vision as noted by the patient’s opthalmologist or optometrist. Have you considered a craniofacial asymmetry as a possible contributor and if so what were your conclusions?
I am in a position to explore this factor, starting with a simple examination of perhaps 50 patients to compare ocular and lateral occlusal planes to see if there is any association. There are several diagnostic procedures which are of help and several orthodontic appliances capable of producing such a levelling process.
Your comments would be greatly appreciated,
Gavin James Orthodontist
BDS. MDS. FDS.( Eng. ) Dip. Orthodont . ( Tor.)
My 4 year old son has a rare form of congenital strabismus where he cannot elevate his left eye past the midline. He also has ptosis of the same eye. With surgery not being a viable option we have started alternative treatment in the form of craniosacral therapy, orafacial myotherapy and pre-orthodontics. It was discovered by craniosacral therapist that there was a significant restriction behind left cheekbone and she referred us to see the orafacial myotherapist who recommended we use a “Myo munchee” appliance to activate muscles of the face. Within one month my son’s ptosis improved and we noticed better movement of the left eye so we decided to explore functional dentistry. I have no started him on pre-orthodontics (Healthy Start) in the hopes that correcting his facial/cranial symmetry will release the muscle restrictions of the eyes. It’s been 1 week and we are observing some interesting changes: his eyes can move up slightly more and his ptosis is not as noticeable as before.
I will post again once treatment really sets in.