Home > Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine > Lazy Eye

Definition

Lazy eye, or amblyopia, is an eye condition in which disuse causes reduced vision in an otherwise healthy eye. The affected eye is called the lazy eye. This vision defect occurs in 2–3% of American children. If not corrected before age eight, amblyopia will cause significant loss of stereoscopic vision, the ability to perceive three-dimensional depth.

Description

In some children, one eye functions better than the other. When a child begins to depend on the stronger eye, the weaker eye can become progressively weaker. Eventually, the weaker eye grows "lazy" from disuse. If left untreated beyond the early child-development years (from birth to seven years old), vision in the affected eye will be underdeveloped due to lack of use.

The impairment of vision in the lazy eye occurs in three phases. In the first (suspension) phase, the brain turns the weaker eye on and off. In the second...