Glaucoma

This week is World Glaucoma Week, reading up on it, got me thinking about how over the years we’ve helped relieve eye problems like, decreased tear production causing dry eyes, soreness remaining after shingles across the face and eyes, reduced pain and discomfort after eye operations such as cataracts and reduced firework like flashings in the eye. Not to mention helping numerous babies with blocked drainage of the eyes. Not seen anyone with glaucoma yet though….

Thought it might be interesting to occasionally write up less usual osteopathy patient cases, so here’s 2 cases about clients who had already been referred to the Bristol Eye Hospital for diagnosis and treatment.

Client 1, a woman in her mid 60’s, who comes for ongoing osteopathy to help with low back and hip pain, developed posterior vitreous detachment, when the jelly at the back of the eye detaches and upsets vision by causing black floaters and also firework like flashes, which she had in her left lateral vision. There’s no medical treatment for the floaters, the brain gradually adapts and stops noticing them but flashes usually take several months to settle down. This client used to play the fiddle and had recently started playing again after quite a long break.

When I examined her, I found that she had a lot of tension in the muscles on the left side of her neck and face, causing a dragging quality to her left face and eye muscles. My diagnosis was that she had developed a postural imbalance from playing the violin, which was causing this increase in muscle tension. We adjusted her posture for playing the violin and then used gentle osteopathic techniques to release the tension the neck, face and eye muscles. It made an enormous difference, after one osteopathy session the flashes stopped completely and after the second her eyes felt fine and she was noticing the floaters less as her brain adapted.

Client 2, a woman in her 70’s, came to the clinic with left eye symptoms – it felt very dry, like sandpaper, with a sensation of pulling and tugging behind her eye when she moved it. She’d had a tear gland tumour from removed from her left eye in 1971 and had used prescription eye drops twice a day since. Now she needed to use them every hour.

When I examined her, I noticed the left side of her face dragged down and found out she had lost several of her left upper molars over the last couple of years. This had changed the use of her mandible, her jaw bone and the loss of height from the missing teeth meant her bite was out, causing drag to her left cheek, eye and forehead. I referred this client to a specialist orthodontist, who made her a plate to replace the missing teeth. At the same time I worked extensively with her to restore her whole posture and particularly the muscles of her neck and face to restore her correct posture and to release and re-balance the tone When I examined her, I noticed the left side of her face dragged down and found out she had lost several of her left upper molars over the last couple of years. This had changed the use of her mandible, her jaw bone and the loss of height from the missing teeth meant her bite was out, causing drag to her left cheek, eye and forehead.

I referred this client to a specialist orthodontist, who made her a plate to replace the missing teeth. At the same time I worked extensively with her to restore her whole posture and particularly the muscles of her neck and face to restore her correct posture and to release and re-balance the tone and use of her jaw. Happily she has made a very good recovery and is now back to using the drops 3 times a day.

Osteopathy can sometimes be helpful supporting medical conditions. If you have any less usual symptoms, give us a call on 0117 923 1138, we might be able to help. Jeni  13 March 2013