The National Eye Institute estimates that amblyopia, or "lazy eye," affects about 2-3% of people in the United States. This visual disorder is more prevalent in children, especially those under the age of six.

What is lazy eye?

Amblyopia, or lazy eye, is a condition in which the vision cannot be corrected to 20/20 on an eye chart as it normally would. Usually one or both eyes are affected, but in rare cases both eyes may be affected and neither eye can be corrected to 20/20.

In essence, lazy eye occurs when a pathway from the eye to the brain does not develop properly, resulting in deficits in the way you see and how your eyes function.

What are the main causes of a lazy eye?

There are three main causes of a lazy eye.

• Strabismic amblyopia is the condition caused by an eye drifting inward or outward. As a result, the brain can't fully use both eyes simultaneously, resulting in lazy eye.
• A common cause of amblyopia is refractive amblyopia, which is when one eye has a significantly different visual ability than the other.
• Deprivation amblyopia is another cause of lazy eye. A condition like congenital cataracts, bell's palsy, or other conditions that prevent light from reaching the retina can also cause this form of amblyopia.

How does a RETeval ERG diagnose amblyopia?

Amblyopia can be diagnosed, managed, and treated in a number of ways, one of which is through RETeval ERG.

ERG is used for a wide range of eye conditions. Using an ERG, we can measure those visual pathways in a way that we couldn't before, since it measures the electrical signals your retina captures and then sends back to your brain. Thus, we are able to assess amblyopia's progress, which is extremely important information when we are working with a patient that has amblyopia. At our office we see many patients with lazy eye and have a world class vision therapy program for amblyopia treatment. So instead of just seeing if the patient can read another letter on the line and only measuring vision, we have another tool to measure whether your amblyopia is improving or not.

Take our online visual skills assessment to help identify if you or your child has a potential visual deficit that may be interfering with success in the classroom, work, or sports.