What is it
Lazy eye or Amblyopia
Lazy eye or amblyopia occurs when one of the two eyes is used less than the other, because the patient suffers from strabismus or has a large difference in prescription between the two eyes, so that one of the two functions as the dominant eye.
Amblyopia manifests itself during childhood in only one eye (although it can affect both) due to the lack of adequate visual stimulation during the critical period of visual development. This disease affects approximately 5% of children.
Lazy eye is a pathology that should be detected and treated at the right time (before the age of 7-8) to obtain a better prognosis for visual recovery. In fact, patients treated for amblyopia usually recover their vision completely and develop their lives normally.
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On the other hand, if this problem is not detected in time, it may last into adulthood without the possibility of correcting the vision of the eye that is not used. This can lead to a permanent and irreversible loss of visual acuity.
Some of the symptoms of children who suffer from lazy eye that should alert parents and educators are head twisting, constant blinking, eye winking, blurred vision, double vision, approaching objects, eye redness, among others.
Treatment of lazy eye or amblyopie
Lazy eye is mainly treated by using glasses or contact lenses, in the case of refractive amblyopia, to correct focusing errors. If the vision of the eye does not improve, then a treatment with patches is established that consists of covering the dominant eye to stimulate the activity of the affected eye, penalizing the other. There are also vision therapy alternatives aimed at developing rehabilitation work for lazy eye.
To prevent lazy eye, it is important to see a paediatric ophthalmologist from the age of 3 to carry out the first visual acuity assessment and rule out any abnormality that may affect the learning of vision. From this age, it is advisable that ophthalmological check-ups be repeated every year.
Other pathologies
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