Primary care physicians (and especially pediatricians) are often the first to see conditions in patients that ultimately need to be referred out to a specialist for treatment.

If your patient has amblyopia (lazy eye), the specialist she will need is a pediatric ophthalmologist. And even though amblyopia affects about 2-4 percent of children in the U.S., it’s likely your young patient’s caregiver has never heard of this pediatric vision condition.

Amblyopia Explained

If you are familiar at all with amblyopia, you probably know this eye condition by its more common name of lazy eye; not to be confused with crossed eyes (strabismus). While strabismus and amblyopia are sometimes related, they are different conditions that require different treatment plans.

Amblyopia occurs when the vision in one eye doesn’t develop as it should, usually in early childhood. When a child’s brain receives both a blurry image and a clear one, it starts to ignore the blurry one.

The problem compounds upon itself because the lower-quality image is ignored more and more by the brain as it deteriorates further. Amblyopia most commonly affects one eye, but may occur in both eyes as well.

It’s important that amblyopia is diagnosed and treated as early as possible because the longer it remains untreated, the more challenging it is to fully correct. Treatment later in childhood can be less effective, and eventually, the vision of the weaker eye may be permanently decreased.

Amblyopia Treatment

Depending on several factors including severity of the condition and age of the patient, treatment for amblyopia can include eye patches, drops, glasses or contact lenses and sometimes even surgery. The overall goal of treatment is to strengthen vision in the weaker eye.

There are several studies supporting the notion that vision therapy (especially in conjunction with patching) can be useful in not only training the patient’s weaker eye to perform at a higher level but in addressing the underlying root cause. The medical community is somewhat mixed on the benefits of vision therapy for amblyopia, and it’s not uncommon to find some practitioners use it while others don’t.

When to Refer to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist

If you believe your patient is experiencing amblyopia (or any other eye care issue), refer to a pediatric ophthalmologist, a board-certified MD who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of many medical and surgical children’s eye disorders, including, but not limited to:

  • Amblyopia (Lazy Eye)
  • Strabismus (Crossed Eyes)
  • Ptosis
  • Nasolacrimal duct obstruction
  • Pediatric cataracts