Amblyopia (Lazy Eye)

Most kids with amblyopia won’t complain of vision problems as they become used to having good vision in one eye and poor vision in the other. Not all kids with amblyopia will have  wandering eyes so parents or teachers may be unaware something is wrong.

Because amblyopia is typically a problem of vision development in infants, symptoms of the condition can be difficult to discern in babies who are nonverbal. This is why many cases of infant amblyopia remained undiagnosed until the child had a comprehensive eye test.

Amblyopia is the leading cause of preventable vision loss in children. How so? As the brain suppresses vision from the amblyopic eye, that eye becomes weaker. If no intervention is given, this may lead to permanent vision loss in that eye.

Children with amblyopia struggle to make their eyes work together as a team. Amblyopia affects depth perception (or the ability to discern how far or near an object is) and how a child sees in 3D. This greatly affects how they move in space and other things like playing sport or pouring water in a glass.

We’ll tailor your child’s eye test based on their age and other factors. Our comprehensive eye test will help detect if your child has amblyopia even while they’re still noncommunicative infants or as kids who don’t complain of vision problems.

We offer safe, effective and nonsurgical methods that have helped many of our patients improve their visual skills symptoms; these include patching, low-dose atropine and vision therapy. If there’s a need, we may refer your child for surgery.

We’ll help your child train their brain to process visual information efficiently—that is to stop suppressing their amblyopic eye and begin to accept visual input from it in order for that eye to regain visual function.

Our goal for your child is that they’ll be able to control their eyes with increased efficiency and agility, increase their self-confidence and improve their academic performance as well as quality of life by giving them the best possible vision.