What is amblyopia?
Amblyopia, better known as "lazy eye", is a decrease in visual acuity without any organic lesion that justifies it. There may be some defect in the eye, such as myopia, but this does not justify the loss of vision.
The weaker eye receives fewer visual signals. Eventually, the eyes' ability to work together diminishes, and the brain suppresses or ignores the input from the weaker eye.
Amblyopia may affect both eyes if both have suffered a long period of visual deprivation.
This can occur when there is a congenital cataract that affects both eyes (clouding of the lens present at birth that prevents vision).
The consequences of lazy eye can be lifelong
In addition to the negative social and environmental consequences that amblyopia can cause a child, vision can be damaged for life if it is not treated in due time, either with modern treatments such as the one we offer at Dicopt or with surgery in the most extreme cases.
Around 30% of cases of school failure are due to an undiagnosed visual problem. One of those visual problems is amblyopia (lazy eye).
"If the intervention is late, it may be too late"
If the intervention is late, after the maturation period of visual development has elapsed, cataract surgery will not serve to improve visual capacity, since the brain is not capable of processing visual stimuli, so as a consequence, the vision deficit would be in this last example impossible to correct.
In most cases there is an asymmetric refractive error (either myopia, astigmatism or hyperopia) that has not been detected or corrected in childhood.
When the difference in visual capacity between the two eyes is significant, the child uses only the eye with the greatest capacity, while the opposite one ends up being functionally disabled, although its physical structure remains intact.
If amblyopia is not treated before the age of nine, it can no longer be reversed, resulting in permanently poor vision.
In this other article we tell you How often do you have to take your child to have his eyes checked?.