AMBLYOPIA (LAZY EYE)

What is lazy eye?
Poor vision in one eye during early childhood that did not develop normal sight is called lazy eye. It is also called as amblyopia in medical terms.

How common is lazy eye?
Lazy eye is quite common and affects 2 or 3 out of every 100 people.

How does lazy eye occur?
Normal vision develops in a child continuously. By nine years of age, the eye vision is fully developed and usually cannot be changed. If the normal use of an eye does not develop in childhood, then the vision does not develop properly and may even decrease.

What are the causes of lazy eye?
In most cases, amblyopia is inherited. Other causes of lazy eye are squint, unequal refractive error between both eyes and cataract. With the first two conditions, the crossed eye ?turns off? to avoid double vision. With cataract, clear image does not form in the eye and that can lead to lazy eye.

How can diagnosis of lazy eye be made?
It is not easy to recognize lazy eye. A child may not be aware of having one strong eye and one weak eye. Diagnosis of amblyopia is made by finding a difference in vision between the two eyes.

What is the treatment of amblyopia?
To treat lazy eye, the child should be made to use the weak eye. This is done by patching or covering the strong eye for weeks or months to make the weaker eye stronger in order to see normally. Glasses may be required to correct errors in focusing. If detected and treated early, vision can improve for most children.

What are the problems of lazy eye?
Untreated lazy eye can develop a serious or permanent vision problem and 3 dimensional vision may be affected. If amblyopia is discovered after early childhood, treatment may not be successful.

Last updated on 1^st December 2008

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