Minus lenses in intermittent exotropia

What is it about?

An established method of helping children with a divergent strabismus is to try a "minus" lens to make them focus more, which brings along convergence to control the eyes. This paper suggests that the lenses may not "make them focus", but instead they correct the short sighted focus sometimes brought along with the extra convergence effort needed straighten the eyes

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Why is it important?

This does not change the fact that minus lenses help some children control their eyes, but it gives an alternative mechanism for the effect. They may enable children to do more control without experiencing blurred distance vision and may explain why lenses only work in the short term because the basic problem (the tendency for the eyes to diverge) remains.