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Amblyopia - treatment
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What is treatment for amblyopia?
Treating amblyopia involves making the child use the eye with the reduced vision
(weaker eye). Currently, there are two ways of doing this:
Atropine (penalization)
A drop of a drug called atropine is placed in the stronger eye once a day to
temporarily blur the vision so that the child will prefer to use the eye with
amblyopia. Treatment with atropine also stimulates vision in the weaker eye and
helps the part of the brain that manages vision to develop more completely.
Patching
An opaque, adhesive (band aid type) patch is worn over the stronger eye for
weeks to months. This therapy forces the child to use the eye with amblyopia.
Patching stimulates vision in the weaker eye and helps the part of the brain
that manages vision to develop more completely.
Whatever the method of treatment, amblyopia must be treated as early as detected and preferably before the age of
9 years. With every passing day, amblyopia becomes more and more irreversible and
resistant to treatment. After the age of about 13 years most cases are
irreversible.
In school, patching causes two problems
1. It is a stigma and a cause for teasing by colleagues
2. With the better eye being occluded the child’s performance is compromised
As teachers you can act as a catalyst in encouraging the child to keep his/her
patch on and to use the weaker eye more
What is amblyopia?
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