Lazy Eye & Child Myopia
TREATMENT FOR LAZY EYE
Vision therapy, an eye patch, eye medication, corrective lenses, and eye surgery are all options for treating lazy eyes.
Visual Therapy
Neurosensory and neuromuscular exercises are used to develop, restore, and improve visual processing in the weaker eye. The eye specialist supervises and monitors this in-office therapy.
Patch for the Eyes
This entails wearing an eye patch over the stronger eye for a set number of hours each day, forcing the amblyopic eye to increase its movement and focussing abilities.
Eyedrops
As an alternative to employing an eye patch, atropine eye drops can be used to relax the focusing muscles of the stronger eye, causing blurred vision. However, using atropine eye drops may cause light sensitivity and problems with close vision.
Lenses for Vision Correction
If refractive defects (e.g. myopia, astigmatism) are present, spectacles or contact lenses may be used to rectify them.
Surgery
If strabismus is the source of the crossed eyes, an out-patient treatment to correct the ocular muscles may be performed. A laser-assisted operation may be performed if there is a large variation in refractive error such as myopia, between both eyes.
TREATMENT FOR CHILD MYOPIA
Because laser-assisted surgery (e.g. LASIK) is only appropriate for those with stable eye prescriptions, it is not a choice for children and teenagers under the age of 18, whose eyesight may be continually changing.
If your child has myopia, hyperopia, or astigmatism and is under the age of 18, their vision can be corrected with spectacles or contact lenses, with the latter being recommended only for youngsters who are old enough to manage them properly.
If your child has myopia, atropine eyedrops may be considered to control increasing myopia (below).
Myopia Control with Atropine
Clinical research has indicated that using atropine eyedrops can help delay the progression of myopia. This is true at low dosages of 0.01% to 0.05%. Higher doses may cause light sensitivity (due to dilated pupils) and problems with close vision (due to a loss in the eye’s focussing power).
The eye specialist will set the amount and frequency of atropine eyedrop administration. While using the eyedrops, your child must be checked on a regular basis for adverse effects, fluctuations in intraocular pressure, and changes in refractive errors.
Visit Eye Max Centre to learn more about myopia treatment in Singapore. To schedule a consultation with our eye specialist, please contact us at +65 6694 1000 or manager@eyemax.sg.