Vision and Posture:

Our vision and our posture are inseparably linked systems.  Your brain makes decisions about what muscles and what posture to assume based on what you see.  For example you will assume a different posture standing at the edge of a cliff vs. standing in the middle of a parking lot based solely on what your eyes are seeing.  Your visual system also seeks input on what it needs to help it see clearly based on your posture.  You will have a different need for correction to see clearly based on what position or posture you are in. Therefore, when you go to the eye doctor to get a glasses prescription the position or posture you assume when you have your eyes checked will have an influence (however admittedly usually small) on the prescription you are given from the eye doctor.  If your body, and specifically your neck, is not in a neutral state you may be asking for a prescription that matches an improperly positioned body. 

Therefore, the first step in our program is assisting our patient to find a neutral state with whatever tools are necessary prior to looking at the visual system.  This always includes what your feet are sensing and what footwear you have on, often looks at your occlusion or bite position, and could include other factors depending on what you need.

Fine-Tuning through Collaboration

At this point it may be necessary to fine tune your prescription to help your body sense and feel or move slightly different.  There can be subtle changes made to your prescription, without sacrificing clarity, that assists your body in either sensing different muscles or movements, or to assist in not overusing prior patterned muscles. The patients input, the therapists input and the optometrists input are all utilized to fine tune this prescription to get the desired results needed.  If additional visual issues such are reading, driving, computer work etc. need to be addressed the optometrist will work with each patient to address those issues to the best of our ability.  The end-result of this process is a visual system that can see clearly but also is giving the brain subtle, unconsious messages on how to move and stand in a more efficient natural way.  This will be utilized for the majority of the time and defiately for training.  This prescription will then be utilized to match any oral device or foot orthotic needed.  Depending on what changes are done there may need to be follow-up visits to address slowly getting rid of those changes as you learn and become more comfortable with maintaining proper upright posture.