Behavioral optometric tests provide the information necessary for creating these special lenses. Patients are provided with these lenses to alter their behavior and allow them to process more information more efficiently, with less stress, and in a shorter period of time and to come away from that stressful act less altered by it. The lens treatment alternative provides the patient with a tool to help them perform their visual tasks. To demonstrate how this type of lens treatment works, consider the following analogy. When the proper tools are used, the object made from the pieces generally goes up more quickly and is more sturdy, and the people building the object have less wear and tear on their fingers than if they tried to build the same structure without using the tools.
Many adults try to help their children build the erector sets using just their fingers.
This takes more time than if they used the proper tools, the finished building is wobbly, and everyone's fingertips are sore for a day or two. Stress-relieving lenses work in the same manner. They are the proper tool to use when working in today's demanding visual environment, which is filled with sustained, near-point visual demands done indoors with artificial lighting and within restricted environs. The final treatment alternative available to the behavioral optometrist is vision therapy. This is an exciting treatment program in which the optometrist provides the patient the opportunity to learn and develop those abilities that either were not present or were poorly developed in the patient's overall profile of visual abilities.