What is Lazy eye or Amblyopia?
After birth and during childhood the nerve from the eye to brain is forming. If a child prefers one eye over the other then the nerve in the bad eye does not form properly and the child loses vision in that eye. This is called amblyopia or lazy eye. This is frequently confused with strabismus which is the crossing or turning out of the eyes. Strabismus is one of the causes of Amblyopia but there are other causes such as an eyeglass prescription which is stronger in one eye than the other or from an injury in one eye or a cataract in one eye. Treatment for Amblyopia frequently involves glasses and patching of the good eye to encourage the child to use the bad eye. Sometimes surgery is warranted.
Amblyopia (lazy eye) is a condition where one has poor vision because it has failed to develop properly from an early age. 2 – 5% of all children have this condition. What causes a lazy eye? In amblyopia, one eye fails to develop properly. Usually this is because of an underlying problem, such as a turned eye or uncorrected refractive error. Over time, the eye loses its ability to compensate for its underlying problem and the brain decreases its control and usage of the “lazy eye”. This results in permanently reduced vision in the lazy eye. What problems might a person with a lazy eye experience? A true lazy eye will result in decreased vision in one eye only. This will make certain tasks, such as judging distances, and depth perception difficult. In addition, because a person with a lazy eye is relying on only one eye for almost all vision, they must be very cautious about the possibility of damage to this eye. Who is at risk of developing a lazy eye? Almost all lazy eyes develop betw
