
Amblyopia, or the lazy eye (ตาขี้เกียจ, which is the term in Thai), is an easily prevalent condition that impacts one eye, although it sometimes impacts both eyes. It happens when the brain and the eye do not ‘connect’ properly, and one eye adapts to ‘see’ for two while the vision in the other eye declines gradually.
This term is a misnomer in that the eye is not lazy in the normal sense of the word, but it means that the two eyes are not working together correctly, and the brain is receiving different inputs from both eyes.
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Causes Of Lazy Eye
This condition occurs wholly during childhood, which is the major cause of visual impairment among children.
It can result from one or several of these factors: Hypoglycaemia is an established cause; amblyopia or preferential seeing for one eye due to refractive error such as myopia, hypermetropia, or astigmatism is another.
When left untreated, the brain will begin to inhibit signals from the affected weak eye from entering the brain. One of the most frequent causes is strabismus, a condition in which the eyes are not correctly aligned and do not focus on the same object simultaneously.
In kids with strabismus, the eye with the problem might turn in or out, up or down, while the other eye is favored to prevent binocular vision.
Furthermore, cataracts can occur in children; this is a common eye disorder that comes with age, where the vision of the eye with the cataract is blurred and can lead to the development of a lazy eye.
Symptoms Of Lazy Eye
Some signs of lazy eye appear faint and can hardly be detected, especially in children of tender age. Sometimes parents might see that the child does not see things clearly; they end up squinting, closing, or closing one eye or tilting their head to see clearly.
Such kids may also have problems with tasks involving proper vision and, therefore, difficulty reading or trying to catch a ball.
More often, amblyopia is detected only during vision tests, which stresses the significance of developmental vision checks to youngsters.
Treatment For Lazy Eye
It is a treatment in which the eye is made to work harder with a view of correcting its vision. There are several ways of treating amblyopia, of which eye patching is the most common; in this method, the healthier eye is occluded, so the weaker eye must be used.
This treatment is used to restore the normal functioning of neurons and allow the brain to recognize images from those eyes.
The other effective treatment involves giving atropine eye drops in the stronger eye, whereby the patient’s vision is blurred temporarily, forcing the brain to use the affected eye.
Conclusion
Therefore, such cases, especially childhood ones, must be diagnosed early enough for appropriate treatment. If special care is taken at the preliminary stage, children can be cured, and permanent eye damage can be prevented. Still, an untreated, lazy eye could result in complete vision impairment to the affected eye for good. Hence, parents are required to ensure that their children undergo eye tests to detect any problem early enough.