Having a lazy eye is probably more common than you think, affecting approximately 2% of the population. The medical name for the condition is amblyopia and if it is not treated before you reach the age of about 7 years old then it will no longer respond to treatment. The normal treatment for a lazy eye is patching, where your good eye is covered in an attempt to make your Lazy eye work harder thus improving your vision. The younger you are, the more successful the patching will be, but once you reach the age of about 7 it will no longer have any effect.
For those people whose patching was not successful, they end up with a lazy eye throughout their adult life. It is quite understandable for such people to wonder whether or not laser eye surgery can fix a lazy eye. Lasik and Lasek are both types of laser eye surgery and they both have limited success at correcting a lazy eye. The easiest way to understand what laser eye surgery can do for amblyopia (lazy eye) is by understanding the following:
Laser eye surgery can give you the vision that you can currently achieve in your glasses or contact lenses. So if with your contact lenses/ glasses on, your lazy eye can only see half way down the eye test chart, then this is the best vision you could expect to achieve following laser eye surgery. The other scenario that is worth discussing is if you decide to only laser your good eye. Surgeons are generally reluctant to laser your good eye if your lazy eye is very poor. The reason for this is that if you assume the worst case scenario and something went wrong with the surgery you may then have to rely only on your lazy eye. If it is a very lazy eye, then it may mean that you could no longer work and drive etc. If your eye is only slightly lazy then your surgeon may consider doing the treatment. If you are in any doubt at all you should book in for a laser eye surgery consultation to see for definite whether you are a suitable candidate. Your surgeon will discuss with you all the issues surrounding laser eye surgery and a lazy eye. The final decision is always down to the surgeon.
If you interested in finding out more about laser eye surgery you can visit www.treatmentsaver.com
Hope this blog post has been helpful and thanks for reading,
Tim