{"id":2751,"date":"2023-02-05T17:27:37","date_gmt":"2023-02-05T14:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/lazy-eye-i-allios-tempeliko-mati-ti-einai-kai-pos-antimetopizetai\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T17:20:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T14:20:45","slug":"lazy-eye-amblyopia-what-it-is-and-how-its-treated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/lazy-eye-amblyopia-what-it-is-and-how-its-treated\/","title":{"rendered":"Lazy eye (amblyopia): what it is and how it\u2019s treated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If the term \u201clazy eye\u201d sounds strange, leave the laziness aside and keep reading!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLazy eye\u201d is the everyday term for <strong>amblyopia<\/strong>, an eye condition in which the affected eye is essentially \u201cnot chosen\u201d by the brain.<\/p>\n<p>What actually happens is that one eye (usually only one) fails to focus properly, sending inaccurate visual information to the brain. This results in the brain\u2019s \u201crejection\u201d of this blurred input.<\/p>\n<p>This neurological dysfunction affects about 5% of the population and appears in early childhood. It\u2019s important to understand that if amblyopia is not diagnosed and treated early, there is no way to correct it later in life. The brain\u2019s \u201cvisual learning\u201d occurs only during the first nine years of life.<\/p>\n<p>Think of the brain as a malleable entity: if it doesn\u2019t receive the right visual training tools early on, it will not be able to reprogram itself later \u2014 even if the optical input becomes clearer.<\/p>\n<p>The types of amblyopia are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><strong>Anisometropic amblyopia:<\/strong> A refractive error where the two eyes have different prescriptions, causing the brain to receive mismatched images it cannot merge.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><strong>Strabismic amblyopia:<\/strong> Caused by misalignment of the eyes (strabismus), leading to a permanent decrease in visual acuity in the affected eye.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><strong>Deprivation amblyopia:<\/strong> Results from reduced visual input in infancy or early childhood, often due to cloudiness in the optical media (e.g., cataract), and can affect both eyes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In the case amblyopia is diagnosed, the child and their parents need patience, discipline, and consistency in following one or more of the following approaches:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Patching of the \u201cgood\u201d eye. By covering the eye that sees well, we push the lazy eye \u2014 and the corresponding anatomical area of the brain \u2014 to try harder and eventually begin the proper reception of stimuli that until that point were not being correctly received. (Covering is recommended for 2 hours per day during moments of creative activity, such as drawing, reading, or playing.) It is very important that this training of the affected eye takes place under the constant supervision and guidance of a specialized doctor.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Atropine eye drops. In certain cases, the use of drops that temporarily blur the \u201cgood\u201d eye is recommended, so that the brain focuses on gathering visual information from the \u201camblyopic\u201d eye, thus functioning as an alternative to patching in cases of the child\u2019s non-compliance.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Use of eyeglasses or contact lenses. The effectiveness of this option is lower and not always successful, yet it corrects the myopic or hypermetropic deviation between the two eyes.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Surgery. Without constituting a direct treatment, such a method is indicated in cases of strabismic amblyopia, offering alignment of the eyes and improvement of binocular cooperation.<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Electronic glasses (amblis). These, for short periods of time, blur the healthy eye in a programmed manner, resulting in the burden of vision falling on the affected eye.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whichever method one chooses, the most important piece of information concerns the age limit and the importance of timely treatment of amblyopia (up to 9 years old for strabismic amblyopia and up to 10 for anisometropic).<\/p>\n<p>The key milestones for children\u2019s eye exams are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1st day of life<\/li>\n<li>1st year of life<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">3rd year of life<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Every 2 years thereafter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Preventive eye check-ups, encouragement, and a creative cooperation with the child can ensure that lazy eye becomes a thing of the past!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the term \u201clazy eye\u201d sounds strange, leave the laziness aside and keep reading! \u201cLazy eye\u201d is the everyday term for amblyopia, an eye condition in which the affected eye is essentially \u201cnot chosen\u201d by the brain. What actually happens is that one eye (usually only one) fails to focus properly, sending inaccurate visual information [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mbp_gutenberg_autopost":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2751"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2804,"href":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions\/2804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eye-center.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}