Combatting
Lazy Eye
T H E N E X T G E N E R AT I O N
O F T R E AT M E N T
By Sarah McGoldrick
IT’S ONE OF THE MOST
COMMON CHILDHOOD
EYE AILMENTS LAZY EYE. OFTEN
MISDIAGNOSED AS BAD
BEHAVIOUR OR ACTING
OUT IN CLASS,
AMBLYOPIA (LAZY EYE)
IS OFTEN DIFFICULT TO
RECOGNIZE BY PARENTS
AND TEACHERS.
THE CAUSES OF
AMBLYOPIA CAN OFTEN
BE THE RESULT
OF MISALIGNED EYES
OR STRABISMUS AS
WELL AS HEREDITARY
FACTORS.
“‘Lazy Eye’ is a common non-clinical term usually used to denote either
strabismus, aka an eye turn, or amblyopia. Amblyopia is a condition where
the eye does not see clearly even when vision is compensated with lenses
and where there is no health concern,” said Dr. Charles Boulet, owner of
Diamond Valley Vision Care in Alberta. “Sometimes these come as a combined
problem where there are an eye turn and the turned eye becomes amblyopic
because it is much less dominant.”
According to the Doctors of Optometry Canada, it is estimated that two to
four per cent of children under the age of six have amblyopia. He said parents
and many medical and optometric practitioners have the idea that there is a
developmental window during which vision can be modified and after which
nothing can be done, but this is not the case.
In the past, the standard treatment for Amblyopia
was eyeglasses, patching, eye drops or surgery.
IT IS ESTIMATED
THAT TWO TO
“It is often assumed that the only way to ‘treat’ a
FOUR PER CENT
turned eye is surgery. Research suggests that surgery
OF CHILDREN
is only sometimes helpful and carries many risks
UNDER THE AGE
while modern Optometric Vision Therapy (OVT) is
much safer and provides better functional results,” he OF SIX HAVE
said. “OVT takes time, and it is not well understood AMBLYOPIA.
outside of the behavioural optometric community,
but it is easily the most underutilized optometric specialty.”
Boulet said the principles of treatment of strabismus and amblyopia have not
changed much themselves in the last few decades in OVT – this is because
human brain physiology has not changed.
Innovations in technology and increased attention in research has meant
that ophthalmology and orthoptics have both begun to adopt more OVT
type strategies in addressing functional vision problems like strabismus
and amblyopia.
“Medically, patching was once the primary means of treating these conditions,
but we now know that patching is only marginally effective in amblyopia,
18 Optical Prism | March 2016