“Does vision therapy work for the lazy eye?”

Vision therapy can work for a lazy eye depending on the root cause of the 'laziness'. I would recommend getting a vision therapy evaluation to see your prognosis and if vision therapy can help you.

It depends on your age and cause of the lazy eye. See an ophthalmologist for diagnosis and recommendation.

Thank you for this great question......Vision therapy can work for a "lazy eye", but there are a few things that I need to mention. "Lazy eye" can cause an eye problem called amblyopia (decreased vision due to a developmental problem) and can be refractive, strabismic, or both. This usually occurs in 1 eye only. Refractive amblyopia occurs because the amount of hyperopia, myopia, and astigmatism is so large that things that should be clear in the distance, middle range, or close are always blurry. As a result, the brain never gets a clear image and vision can be decreased forever if this is not found early enough to treat it. The strabismic amblyopia occurs from a turned eye that comes from nerve or muscle problems. This is sometimes found early enough due to the cosmetic nature of a turned eye and muscle surgery or lenses can help. And, you can have both forms of amblyopia occurring at the same time. So, to answer your question, what therapies and treatments may work? This definitely depends upon your age and how long your vision has been reduced. This is why we want children to have an early eye exam in order to detect any vision problems that can potentially be corrected at an early age. If you are 20 years of age or older, the vision problem has been there for some time. The use of eyeglass lenses, prisms, contact lenses, or eye surgery may not help. If your "lazy eye" is causing a minor vision loss without there being an eye turn present, then vision therapy or lens therapy may help. You would want to see an optometrist who does provide vision therapy. Not every optometrist provides vision therapy, FYI. So, please make an appointment with an eye doctor in order to diagnose what your actual problem is. An optometrist can determine if lens therapy or vision therapy will help you. And if the optometrist determines that eye surgery or muscle surgery may help, they will always refer you to an ophthalmologist who does this type of surgery. Good luck and best wishes.