How is amblyopia currently treated?
Many eye care professionals treat amblyopia by placing an opaque adhesive patch, or “eye bandage,” on the skin to cover the unaffected eye for many hours each day lasting from weeks to months. For moderate amblyopia (20/40 to 20/80), this can mean six hours or more each day. Patching the unaffected eye had been the mainstay of amblyopia treatment for decades. In March 2002, researchers reported the effectiveness of a second form of treatment, which involved using atropine eye drops that dilate the unaffected eye. Both treatments force the child to use the eye with amblyopia, stimulating vision improvement in that eye by helping the part of the brain that manages vision to develop more completely. Is treatment more effective at certain ages? Treatment for amblyopia should generally be started when the child is young, since amblyopia seems to be more effectively treated in children less than seven years old. Response to treatment in older children is less effective. Timely and successful
