eye patch for Amblyopia (lazy eye) question?!
Question: Eye patch for Amblyopia (lazy eye) question?
2. What should I do to help improve the eye while wearing the patch?
3. I am 17, will wearing an eye patch help at all? I've read that only young children can improve a lazy eye.
4. How long will it be until I see some sort of improvement?
--Do not tell me to go talk to a doctor. Don't you think I already have?...He told me to wear a patch but never answered these questions.
--To clarify I do not have a droopy eye, nor is my eye not aligned correctly. It simply does not communicate with my brain efficiently.
Answers:
1. The doctor really should have told you how long to wear it. There's a number of 'schools of thought' on this one, but at your age maybe 4 hours per day? Sorta depends on how bad your amblyopia is, too.
2. Anything visually intensive, particularly things with hand-eye coordination. Reading, drawing, that kind of thing is good; watching TV not so much. Nothing involving running around because you're likely to bump into stuff.
3. Scientific research says either "no it won't help at all" or "it won't help much", depending who you believe, but there's a small percentage of cases where it does work and there's really no harm in trying. Children's brains are much more flexible, so the patching therapy works much better and much faster.
4. At least a month or two; typically the doc would want to see you back for a follow-up and adjust things from there.
For what it's worth, most doctors wouldn't mind you calling up and asking these questions.
I'm an optometrist.
You could try doing an online search, then the library or an expert can help you.