Amblyopia, sometimes called a “lazy eye,” occurs when one or both eyes do not develop normal vision during early childhood. Babies are not born with 20/20 vision in each eye but must develop it between birth and 6-9 years of age by using each eye regularly with an identical focused image falling on the retina of each eye. If this does not occur in one or both eyes, vision will not develop properly. Instead, vision will be reduced and the affected eye(s) said to be amblyopic. This common condition, affecting up to 4% of all children, should be diagnosed and treated during infancy or early childhood to obtain optimum 3-dimensional vision and to prevent permanent vision loss. Once a child is 6-9 years old, diagnosis and/or treatment results in little vision improvement.
Amblyopia has three major causes: strabismus, unequal refractive error or anisometropia, and reduced clarity or obstruction of the optical structures in the eye, e.g., cornea, lens, and vitreous gel.
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