For any parent of a child with strabismus, it is imperative that they educate themselves and know their options for treatment. Surgery cannot correct the nerve pathways from the brain to the eye which caused the crossed eye to begin with. Instead, the process of invasive surgery and resulting scar tissue only compounds the real problem, making later nonsurgical intervention much more difficult. Most importantly, surgery does nothing to train the brain how to use both eyes together . Most children who have undergone surgery for a crossed eye still suppress one eye full time.
Suppression is the brain's learned response to avoid double vision.
Suppression must be unlearned and the brain trained to use both eyes together if normal functional vision is to be restored. The few who do are nearly always very young children under the age of six whose visual systems were still developing and fluid enough to fall into binocularity on their own. This is not true for the vast majority, however. And because the real cause of strabismus was not addressed, the cosmetic results of surgery are often not permanent . Over time, the eye begins to turn again and repeated operations are required to realign the eye.