Squint Treatment for Children in Dubai & Abu Dhabi

You should arrange an assessment with a paediatric eye specialist if your child’s squint is still present after three months of age or is seen repeatedly. A squint that appears suddenly or is constant should be assessed promptly at any age, including in the first few months of life. Early assessment can establish the type of squint and whether it is affecting your child’s normal visual development.

A child should not be assumed to grow out of a squint. Some babies may appear to have a squint because of the shape of the nose and surrounding facial features, whilst some types of genuine squint can change as the child grows. A specialist assessment is therefore required to confirm whether a true squint is present and whether monitoring or treatment is needed

A squint and a lazy eye are different conditions, although they can occur together. A squint refers to eyes that are not aligned, whilst a lazy eye, medically known as amblyopia, develops when vision in one or both eyes does not develop normally during childhood. Treatment such as patching can improve vision in the weaker eye but does not necessarily correct the eye’s alignment.

Our paediatric pathway may involve an optometrist, an orthoptist and an ophthalmologist working in sequence, with each assessment contributing to an accurate clinical picture of your child’s vision and eye alignment. The examination may include checking the vision in each eye, measuring the direction and degree of the squint, assessing whether glasses are required and using dilating eye drops to examine the eyes more fully.

Treatment depends on the type and cause of the squint, the vision in each eye and how well the eyes work together. It may include glasses, structured monitoring, patching or eye drops to treat associated amblyopia, selected eye exercises, botulinum toxin injections or surgery. Each treatment has a different purpose, which may include improving vision in the weaker eye, correcting a glasses prescription, improving eye alignment or supporting the ability of the eyes to work together

Glasses can fully or partly correct some squints, particularly inward-turning squints associated with long-sightedness. In other cases, glasses may improve alignment without fully correcting it, and further treatment may be considered after the child has worn the prescribed glasses for the recommended period.

Squint surgery may be recommended when a significant squint is not fully corrected by glasses, or when earlier alignment improvement may support the development of binocular vision. The procedure is usually performed as a day case under general anaesthesia and involves strengthening, weakening or repositioning the muscles attached to the outside of the eye to achieve a straighter eye position.

We have paediatric squint specialists in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, supported by orthoptists and optometrists who work together to assess and manage different forms of childhood squint. Care is provided in dedicated paediatric departments that were designed with our little patients in mind.

Squint surgery is a commonly performed and generally safe procedure that can improve the alignment of the eyes. However, the outcome cannot be predicted precisely, and one operation may not fully correct the squint. Some children may require further surgery later in life, and the squint may return in the same or opposite direction. Squint surgery is intended to improve eye alignment; it does not treat amblyopia and does not usually remove the need for glasses.

Squint care at our specialist eye Hospitals in Dubai and Abu Dhabi is delivered within established clinical governance, audit and patient safety frameworks, with clinical protocols aligned to those followed by Moorfields Eye Hospital London. Our hospitals hold recognised international accreditations, including JCI and ACHSI, while Moorfields Eye Hospital Dubai also holds ACHSI Centre of Excellence status in ophthalmology. We regularly measure and publish clinical outcomes to provide patients with clear, transparent information about the quality of care we deliver.
Learn more about our satisfaction rates and outcomes: https://moorfields.ae/our-satisfaction-rates/