Would contacts be suitable for Convergence Insufficiency? What about surgery?

[JordanFireStar]

I have convergence insufficiency and I have trouble doing basic tasks without pain, even with things such as cooking.  My glasses help alleviate this a lot but the pain is still always there.  

Anyways, the first quesiton I had was, are contacts as good as glasses for convergence insufficiency? Do I need to order a special type or just put in my prescription numbers?

The second question was, am I able to get surgery for convergence insufficiency?  Is surgery effective for this?  And would going out of country to get it be relatively safe?

Thank you for any answers!

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

1. Constacts do not help convergence insufficiency (CI) because not possible to put prisms in them.  There are some exercises for CI so called "pencil push-ups) but in an adult not usally helpful.  Most common treatment Prism glasses for near tasks. These move the image out so the eye does not have to converge so muchy.  Because this type of problem, if it comes to surgery requires many visits over a long period of time, it is not a good idea to go out of country or to a city you cannot easily get to. You need to see an Eye MD ophthalmologist that specialises in eye muscle problems  (strabismus) they are often called pediatric ophthalmologists but almost all do adults.