Can i cure lazy eye

Your doctor will tell you how long you should keep the patch on. Wearing the patch for many hours can sometimes cause lazy eye to manifest in the stronger eye. When this happens, the condition is typically rectified easily with treatment. Eyepatches may be used alone or with corrective lenses. Your doctor may be able to supply you with eyepatches.

Children who cannot tolerate eyepatches may get the same or similar results with Bangerter filters. These filters are a type of opaque covering that fits on the inside of the eyeglass lens worn over the dominant eye.

Bangerter filters should be worn full time. They can be modified for density and opaqueness over time, as symptoms improve. For this reason, they may be useful after patching has occurred, as a secondary treatment. Medicated eye drops can be used to blur the vision in the dominant eye, making the weaker eye work harder. The medication typically used is atropine, which is sold under the brand name Isopto Atropine.

It may be used several times daily to diminish vision in the dominant eye, making the lazy eye work harder. Atropine is covered by insurance, though your plan may require you to get the generic type. Games and activities designed to challenge the weak eye have been shown to be beneficial, but these may not be enough to correct vision as a stand-alone treatment. Eye training tools include specific types of computer or iPad games and activities such as putting together jigsaw puzzles and drawing pictures.

Training with computer games and videos has been shown to be effective in several small studies, including one from and one from However, more research is needed before it can be considered effective enough to use without other forms of therapy, such as wearing an eyepatch.

Surgery for lazy eye is done to adjust the length or positioning of the eye muscles. It may be used when amblyopia is caused by a:. The length of the program depends on the severity of the diagnosis and patient compliance, but most therapy programs range from several weeks to several months. Contact an eye doctor near you who has experience treating lazy eye with vision therapy to help improve your vision. Eye patching, usually recommended within a personalized vision therapy program, involves placing an eye patch over the stronger eye— forcing the lazy eye to work and develop a better connection to the brain.

The length of this treatment method depends on the extent of the vision, the age of the child, and how long the lazy eye has been present.

Please note, total eye occlusio n of the stronger eye is necessary, without any light filtering through the patch. Decorated eye patches are available for children, to encourage them to wear the patch. Additionally, there are patches that attach to an eyeglass lens, if your child wears eyeglasses. In the past, doctors would recommend full-time patching for lazy eye treatment, for up to 6 or 8 hours every day. However, this recommendation often led to poor patient compliance because of social stigmas and daily hardships.

Similarly, in cases of severe amblyopia, six hours of patching per day has been shown to be as effective as full-time patching. Similar to eye patching, atropine eye drops are typically used in combination with a vision therapy program. The drops are applied in the non-affected eye in order to blur vision, and force the lazy eye to become stronger— thereby strengthening the eye-brain connection. Many parents find the eye drops to be less conspicuous than eye patching, but the drops can cause physical discomfort such as stinging and blurry vision— which may result in inadequate patient compliance.

The good news is that recent research conducted by the PEDIG team has shown that daily use of atropine drops are not necessary for noticeable improvement of vision in moderate to severe amblyopia.

A patch may also need to be worn or eyedrops used, if the lazy eye returns. Page last reviewed: 16 May Next review due: 16 May The 2 main treatment options for a lazy eye are: treating or correcting any underlying eye problems encouraging the use of the affected eye so vision can develop properly Treating underlying eye problems Glasses Short- or long-sightedness, can be corrected using glasses.

They'll need plenty of encouragement to wear their glasses continuously. Contact lenses are an alternative to glasses, but they may only be suitable for older children. Surgery In children, most cataracts are removed to allow better development of vision in the affected eye. Read more about treating squints. A droopy eyelid can also be corrected using surgery. Encouraging use of a lazy eye A number of different treatment options can be used to encourage your child to use the affected eye.

Using a patch This involves placing a patch with a sticky rim over the "good" eye so the lazy eye is forced to work. Eyedrops Atropine eyedrops can be used to blur the vision in the good eye. Side effects that can occur after using eyedrops include: eye irritation reddening flushing of the skin headaches However, these side effects are usually rare and rarely outweigh the benefits of using eyedrops.

If treatment does not work In some cases, a lazy eye does not improve despite having proper treatment. If that eye is not stimulated properly, the nerve cells responsible for vision do not mature normally. In the United States, amblyopia affects approximately 2 percent of all children.

It is the most common cause of partial or total blindness in one eye in the U. In fact, it is a developmental problem in the nerve connecting the eye to the brain, not a problem in the eye itself.

After a child is 8 years old, the likelihood of vision improvement drops significantly but can still be effective. Many children who have unequal vision, or anisometropia, do not know they have an eye problem because the stronger eye and the brain compensate for the shortfall.

The weaker eye gets progressively worse, and amblyopia develops. Glasses: A child with near-sightedness, far-sightedness, or astigmatism will be prescribed glasses. The child will have to wear them all the time so that the specialist can monitor how effective they are at improving the vision problems in the lazy eye. Glasses may also correct an eye turn. Sometimes, glasses can solve the amblyopia, and no more treatment is required.

They need to be encouraged to wear them for the treatment to be effective. Cataract surgery, or phacoemulsification: If a cataract is the cause of amblyopia, it can be surgically removed under either local or general anesthesia.

Correcting droopy eyelids: For some people, amblyopia is caused by an eyelid that is blocking the vision to the weaker eye. In this case, the usual treatment is surgery to lift the eyelid. Once the vision is corrected and any underlying medical issues are addressed, then there are several other actions that can be taken to help improve vision.

As the brain is only getting information from that eye, it will not ignore it. The patch is usually worn for a few hours each day.