Amblyopia Treatment at Progressive Eyecare & Eyewear
Any issues affecting your child’s vision always warrant immediate action. One of these vision issues your child may encounter is amblyopia. This condition can cause your child to struggle in school and even suffer permanent vision loss if you do not get it treated. Progressive Eyecare & Eyewear in Fishers and Indianapolis, IN, can offer effective treatment for your child’s case of amblyopia. Our optometrist is here to tell you about amblyopia and how we can treat it to protect your child’s eyesight.
What Is Amblyopia?
Amblyopia, better known as lazy eye, develops when the vision in one eye does not develop properly, causing the other eye to cross or drift outwards to compensate. This condition can lead to poor depth perception and eye misalignment. Your child may also favor one side more since their vision is better on that side.
Your child can develop amblyopia due to several different causes. Eye misalignment forces the brain to depend on the strongest eye for visual signals and use the weaker eye less frequently. Strabismus can increase your child’s risk of developing amblyopia. Refractive vision errors, such as astigmatism, nearsightedness, and farsightedness, can also affect how your child’s brain interacts with the eyes.
Regardless of how your child develops amblyopia, you must secure treatment for them as soon as possible. Visiting your optometrist near you is vital for treating this condition and preventing significant vision loss and other issues.
How Does an Optometrist Treat Amblyopia?
Treatment for amblyopia often involves some form of vision training. Your child’s vision training may include patching therapy and exercises to retrain the brain. Patching therapy involves placing a patch over your child’s stronger eye to force the brain to use the weaker eye. Doing this can improve the eye’s capabilities and make it on par with the other eye. Visual exercises can help increase your child’s focusing, eye-tracking, and hand-eye coordination skills to strengthen their eyes.
Your eye doctor may prescribe eyeglasses to correct your child’s amblyopia. These lenses can level the performance of your child’s eyes, encouraging the brain to utilize both eyes rather than just one. Eye drops can also help treat amblyopia. Similar to patching therapy, the eye drops will temporarily weaken the strong eye to improve your child’s usage of the weak eye.
Treat Your Child’s Amblyopia Today at Progressive Eyecare & Eyewear
Amblyopia can significantly impact your child’s learning ability and lead to permanent vision loss if left untreated, so contact Progressive Eyecare & Eyewear in Fishers and Indianapolis, IN, to get the treatment necessary to protect your child’s eyesight. Call us and schedule an appointment with our optometrist at our Fishers office at (317) 913-0700 or our Indianapolis office at (317) 595-8855 to improve your child’s eye and vision health.