Question About My Lazy Eye (Amblyopia)?!


Question: Question About My Lazy Eye (Amblyopia)!?
Sorry this is so long!

Okay, so I was diagnosed with a lazy eye (my left eye) when I was about eight-years-old, and while I was younger I wore glasses for a few years, and then I stopped!. They never did patching, eye drops, vision therapy or anything!. Only glasses!. So, anyway, a few years later I was talking to my optometrist about getting a new pair of eyeglasses, and he said that I could if I wanted to, but it wouldn't do much to improve my lazy eye, as my right eye was already seeing better to make up for the blurriness in the left!. I got the glasses, and never wore them, unfortunately!. I know that a lazy eye can be treated successfully up to the age of 17, and even older than that sometimes, but with more effort!. So, I have two questions!.

One: When I go see my new optometrist in a few weeks, what should I ask him about finally getting SOME sort of real treatment for my lazy eye!? I know it may not give me much improvement if any, as I just turned 20, but I still want to ask!. I literally just found out that amblyopia can cause eventual blindness in the affected eye, and it's making me take it a little more serious than it years past!. I can see almost 20/20 out of my right eye, and since I didn't know much about amblyopia, I've never really worried!.

Two: I know that a lazy eye is not correctable by just wearing eye glasses alone, but I was wondering if wearing them can still help prevent me from going blind in my left eye one day, and what other benefits there are to wearing them!? (Besides helping me with what I believe is depth perception when I drive!. Yeah, when I was taking my eye test to get my license, the only way I passed was by wearing my long-neglected glasses!. I think I remember them saying something about depth perception!. My old optometrist never mentioned anything about it to me!. Or much about my lazy eye, really!.)

Any feedback would be REALLY helpful!. I'm a little worried!. Thanks in advance! =]
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Answers:
Well, a long question deserves a long, detailed answer, so here goes!
One: Tell your optometrist the whole story like you've told us!. We've all heard the stories about people with lazy eyes who were never really examined or treated properly (at least by today's standards), and it's something that can be dealt with!. Ask him or her what they recommend, and what they've done for other people like you in the past!. I've seen patching tried for people around your age -- even though research says it probably won't work, there's no harm in trying!. Glasses and/or contacts can be prescribed, too!. There are also some pretty trippy new-age kind of things like light therapy and macular stimulation that have been tried with varying levels of success!.
Two: Let's give you a crash course in amblyopia before your eye doc appointment!. Basically, amblyopia is a fancy way of saying "lazy eye", or "an eye that doesn't see very well, for no particular reason"!. See, amblyopia isn't a disease like cataracts or glaucoma, it's more like a leftover "huh!?" kind of diagnosis that just describes the symptoms!. The most common reason is that a problem in childhood (like an eye turn or a congenital cataract or something) prevents the eye-brain connection from properly developing!. Unfortunately, this means that, even if we fix whatever the initial problem is, your brain is pretty well used to ignoring any input from that eye, and it's hard to make it start listening again!. Fortunately, that also means that, unless something goes horribly wrong in that eye, your vision shouldn't get any worse!. The word "blind" gets thrown around a lot, but I think the important part is that, even if you're "legally blind", most of the time you still have some vision left -- large fuzzy shapes, colours, lights, full peripheral vision, etc!. -- that is useable for most activities in everyday life like cooking, getting around, etc!. Of course, since you've got one good eye, the most important thing is to protect that eye, because if it gets injured (say in an accident) then you're stuck with just the vision in the poorer eye!.
Okay, crash course over!. Now you know that wearing glasses isn't going to prevent you from going blind in your left eye, because you're not any more likely to go blind in your left eye than your right eye! The benefits to wearing glasses usually are things like "protecting your eyes" and "looking smarter", as well as (possibly) helping the vision in your good eye!. You may have better vision wearing glasses in your bad eye, or maybe not; everyone's different!. Your depth perception is definitely improved when both eyes are seeing as clearly as possible; here in Canada that's not a requirement for a driver's license, but that might be different wherever you are!.
So, for your eye exam:
- Give the whole story, and mention the concerns you have
- Ask what sort of things you could or should try, and what success (if any) they've had before with people your age
- Ask about glasses, and whether or not they would improve things for either eye!. Ask specifically about contact lenses -- sometimes glasses won't help because they'll be really thick, ugly, and distort things, whereas contacts don't do that as much!. (It may be the case, though, that neither one will help!.)
- Ask for a demonstration of the vision you'd have left if something were to happen to your good eye!. (You can approximate this by covering your good eye with, say, your hand, but the optometrist may be able to improve this even!.)
- Consider glasses for protection, even if they aren't strictly necessary!. Try to use sunglasses or safety glasses when appropriate, too!.

Good luck, and I hope this helps assuage some of your concerns!Www@Answer-Health@Com

I think 'i would see an Opthamologist rather than an Optometrist!. But I don't know about the condition!.

http://parents!.berkeley!.edu/recommend/me!.!.!.Www@Answer-Health@Com

OK, I use to work for an ophthalmologist!. I was taught that you could not improve on a lazy eye after the age of 6 or 7!. With that said, you may have done enough to bring the vision "up" when you were younger!. I've seen people corrected to 20/30 (or better) in their lazy eye because of glasses and/or patching!. On the other hand, some people never correct beyond 20/400!. You don't say what your vision is in your left eye!. Try not to worry!. It doesn't help anything!. See a doctor you like and trust!. If your glasses help your lazy eye improve even a little bit than you should wear them!. It may help to even out your vision a bit and improve depth perception, again, depending on your best corrected vision of your lazy eye!. Www@Answer-Health@Com





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