New Technology to Diagnose “Lazy Eye” in Children

Amblyopia or “lazy eye” can lead to vision loss in a person’s weaker eye if it goes untreated.  Luckily, if amblyopia is diagnosed and worked on before age seven, more than three quarters of children can achieve at least 23/30 vision.

Because there are concerns that caregivers can miss the signs of amblyopia, experts are looking into a better way to diagnose the problem.

A program in Iowa sponsored by he University of Iowa and the Iowa Lions Clubs worked together over the last decade to screen almost 150,000 children using technology called the PhotoScreener.  According to the source of this story, MedicalNewsToday.com, this device “records the pattern of light reflected through each of the child’s pupils as the child’s eyes are photographed.”

The PhotoScreener is also helpful in finding such conditions as  unequal visual acuity between the two eyes (anisometropia), high nearsightedness, high farsightedness, astigmatism, and strabismus.

For more on ways that Vision Therapy can help amblyopia and other eye convergence problems, please visit our website.