Vision Specialists of Michigan
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Gait & Balance
Disturbance and
Clumsiness

Are you clumsy and uncoordinated, often bumping into walls, furniture, or even the person walking next to you? Are you uncoordinated and have trouble catching or hitting a ball?

It may be your eyes:

Gait & Balance Disturbance and Clumsiness

Are you clumsy and uncoordinated, often bumping into walls, furniture, or even the person walking next to you? Are you uncoordinated and have trouble catching or hitting a ball?

It may be your eyes:

Gait Balance Disturbance

Many of our patients with extreme clumsiness complain of knocking things over (like glasses and cups), having trouble with balance and unsteady walking, leading to difficulties with daily tasks and activities. Our patients have been previously diagnosed with poor depth perception, balance issues, and have been told they are just clumsy or are uncoordinated. When you have attempted countless treatments, seen multiple doctors and are still overwhelmed and looking for clumsiness relief, you may actually be suffering from Binocular Vision Dysfunction.

Binocular Vision Dysfunction & Gait and Balance Disturbances and Clumsiness

Binocular Vision Dysfunction is caused when your eyes are misaligned, causing your eye muscles to overwork and strain to correct this vision impairment and prevent double vision. Even a small amount of vision misalignment can cause gait/balance disturbance and clumsiness symptoms, which have often been diagnosed as the following:

Do you have Binocular Vision Dysfunction?

Balance Issues:

Having difficulty walking in a straight line, feeling unsteady or unstable while walking, or constantly bumping into the person you are walking next to is commonly associated with balance issues. However, when you suffer from a vision misalignment, it impacts your entire body’s alignment, which could be causing your inability to balance effectively. This can be treated with aligning lenses, which will bring your vision and your body into alignment, giving you balance and clumsiness relief.

Depth Perception Issues:

With Binocular Vision Dysfunction, many of our patients struggle with depth perception. Depth perception is the way that the brain sees the size and distance of an object. When your eyes are misaligned they struggle to work together to see an image, often resulting in blurred or possibly double vision. This prevents accurate judgement of the size and distance of the object you are viewing, leading to difficulty catching and hitting balls and to knocking over glasses and cups (by misjudging the distance to the glass or cup) or bumping into door frames or furniture. By treating the vision misalignment with our specialized aligning lenses, the object is brought into focus, giving you depth perception.

At Vision Specialists of Michigan, to determine the extent of your vision misalignment, our compassionate doctors will complete a thorough NeuroVisual Examination. With the results of your exam we will be able to determine the correct specialized aligning lenses for you. Unlike a standard eyeglass prescription, our lenses allow your eyes to work together by treating your Binocular Vision Dysfunction along with any additional vision impairments. For many of our Binocular Vision Dysfunction patients who are uncoordinated, having the correct aligning lenses gives them depth perception for the first time, providing them with gait/balance and clumsiness relief.

Suffering from severe gait/balance disturbances and clumsiness can prevent you from enjoying your life, causing you to have difficulties participating in activities, sports, and driving. Complete the screening questionnaire or contact us today to determine if we can help you experience neck pain relief.

give us a call today at

248-258-9000

or complete our online

BVD questionnaire
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Want to learn more about Binocular Vision Dysfunction?

Watch these videos of BVD patient experiences:

https://youtu.be/WMR8LsiIUA0

Riley's Binocular Vision Dysfunction Story

https://youtu.be/auLrPQqf-AM

5 Minute Cover Test for Binocular Vision Dysfunction

https://youtu.be/T0DlXCB5XDo

Professional Colleagues Discuss Binocular Vision Dysfunction

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It may be your eyes
  • American Academy Optometry
  • American Optometric Association
  • Michigan Optometric Association
  • VEDA
  • Neuro Optometry Rehabilitation Association
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Dr. Sandy DiPonio earned her optometry degree from Illinois College of Optometry in 1996. She is a highly skilled and experienced eye care professional dedicated to giving her patients of all ages excellent and compassionate care. She has a wide variety of experience in binocular vision, pediatric and adult eye care, ocular disease and contact lens fitting. She strives to provide each of her patients the best quality of life they can achieve with their vision through knowledge and education of treatment options.

Dr. DiPonio is a member of the American Optometric Society and Michigan Optometric Society.

Dr. Sally Hoey has been practicing optometry since graduating from Michigan College of Optometry in 2001. During her time in optometry school, she developed an interest in binocular vision, culminating in a senior thesis involving binocular vision.

Prior to joining Vision Specialists of Michigan, Dr. Hoey specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of vision-related learning problems as well as other binocular vision disorders. Her other areas of interest include specialty contact lens fittings and treating dry eye. Dr. Hoey strives to provide her patients with clear, comfortable vision while meeting their individual needs at the same time.

Dr. Hoey had the opportunity to provide eye care on an optometric mission trip to Guyana, South America and vision screenings at a local medical clinic. She is a member of the American Optometric Association, Michigan Optometric Association, Metropolitan Detroit Optometric Society and the College of Optometrists in Vision Development.

Dr. Jennifer Place graduated with honors from Michigan College of Optometry in 2001.

Before joining Vision Specialists of Michigan, she specialized in treating pediatric and adult patients with binocular vision disorders and vision-related learning problems, as well as fitting specialty contact lenses and managing various types of ocular disease. She enjoys working with patients with unique visual needs, and she takes great pride in providing all patients with highly customized care.

Dr. Place has volunteered for Opening Eyes, a program that provides eye exams to the athletes of the Michigan Special Olympics, and she participated in an international mission to St. Lucia to provide eye care to those in need. Dr. Place is a member of the Detroit Optometric Society, the Michigan Optometric Association, the American Optometric Association, the College of Vision Development, and the Optometric Extension Program Foundation.

Dr. Mary Jo Ference has been practicing optometry since 1990 upon graduating from Ferris State University- Michigan College of Optometry, and is certified in Low Vision Rehabilitation. She has worked at Sinai-Grace Hospital systems for over 20 years before joining Vision Specialists of Michigan in 2013 to work with binocular vision disorders. Her clinical areas of expertise include visual rehabilitation of pediatric and adult patients who have suffered from brain trauma, injury or disease. She has taught both optometry and ophthalmology residents at Sinai Grace Hospital. Dr. Ference has sat on numerous boards, including Sinai Grace Hospital, Berry Out-Patient Surgical Center, and Seedlings Braille Books for the Blind. She is actively involved in area school districts to provide education, training and access for students, teachers, OT’s and PT’s to eye care service rehabilitation information. Dr. Ference has lectured extensively nationally and internationally.

Dr. Debby Feinberg began practicing Optometry in Oakland County in 1983, upon graduating from Illinois College of Optometry. She joined her father, Dr. Paul C. Feinberg, at Mall Optical Center, which was located in Summit Place Mall.

Since 1995 Dr. Feinberg has been developing the field of NeuroVisual Medicine which is the optometric subspecialty that identifies and treats neurological / medical symptoms that originate directly or indirectly in the visual system.

Dr. Feinberg has been performing pioneering work with Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD), a condition where a vision misalignment (frequently subtle) creates difficulties with the two eyes working together to create a single 3-dimensional image, and difficulties with the two eyes following that image as it moves.

The symptoms caused by BVD are not usually associated with problems with the visual system, and include headache, dizziness, anxiety and panic, persistent post-concussive symptoms, gait instability and balance problems, frequent falls, neck pain, motion sickness, nausea, and reading and learning problems.

In 2004. Dr. Feinberg established Vision Specialists of Birmingham, specifically designing the practice to accommodate the needs of the NeuroVisual Medicine patient.

In 2011, the office moved to its current location in Bloomfield Hills and updated its name to Vision Specialists of Michigan.