According to The VisionHelp Group, Amblyopia is a “treatable, neurodevelopmental form of vision loss. It is caused when there is a disruption in binocular vision in infancy/toddlerhood either by misalignment of the eyes, or when one eye has a greater nearsightedness/farsightedness and/or astigmatism, or blockage of light, such as infantile cataracts.“
Amblyopia is very common, with over 12 million people in the US alone affected (about 3.5% of the US population).
Though the condition is often referred to as “lazy eye”, Dr. Bruce Wojciechowski, Doctor of Optometry and Founding Partner of Northwest Eye Care Professionals, said he hates that description.
“We never refer to Amblyopia in that way because it’s a term surrounded in shame,” Wojciechowski said. “Amblyopia has nothing to do with a patient being ‘lazy’ or doing anything wrong.”
Wojciechowski said that this shame can lead to some patients believing that nothing can be done to treat Amblyopia, but that’s not the case. He’s treated patients from six or seven years old to those in their 50s and 60s.
Amblyopia can occur in a few ways. Sometimes in infancy, a disruption occurs which misaligns the eyes and interrupts binocular vision. With the eyes misaligned, one eye becomes the primary vehicle of vision, doing the lionshare of the visual work, while the other one contributes minimally.
In a similar way, one eye can be more farsighted or nearsighted than the other. With this imbalance, one eye receives a stronger signal. Juliet Machado, Certified Optometric Vision Therapist, calls this eye the “bully eye”.
“This ‘bully eye’ tells the weaker eye, ‘I’ve got this, you don’t need to do any of the work’,” Machado said. “So the weaker eye listens, and stops doing a lot of the work, causing the cells it needs to process visual information to fall into disuse.”
The effects of Amblyopia include a deficiency in impaired depth perception, poorer eye-hand coordination, trouble with tripping and being accident prone, deficits in visual information processing and reduced reading speed and comprehension.
As previously mentioned, this condition can be treated at any age, though there are multiple treatment methods. One includes patching: a technique in which a black patch is placed over the “bully eye” so the weaker eye has the opportunity to work again.
But Machado said that this method leaves a lot to be desired, as progress often regresses once the treatment is discontinued since no binocular coordination is achieved.
“When we treat Amblyopia, our job is to get the weaker eye working again, but it’s also to get the eyes working together as a team,” Machado said. “This is possible through visual therapy.”
The goal of binocular vision therapy is gradual acceptance of equal input so both eyes can work together as a team, it is more than simply getting the weaker eye stronger. Eye teaming is what is going to provide long term success in performance.
Praxi is a Vision Therapy experience in VR and on mobile devices designed to relax your eyes and neuro-visual pathways to restore you to a rested and relaxed state of focus. Through various exercises, you will train your visual system, learning skills such as improving your focus, improving your reaction time, opening up your depth of vision, and increasing your peripheral vision.
