Amblyopia is the complicated technical term for the visual impairment also called weak-sightedness (Schwachsichtigkeit). What distinguishes this visual impairment from other vision defects?
In amblyopia, visual acuity is primarily affected. In extreme cases, the affected person can be completely blind. However, it is also possible that both eyes are only limited, or only one eye is affected. Those affected by such one-sided amblyopia often do not know that they are impaired, because they can often compensate quite well with the other eye. Altogether, about five to six percent of the German population are affected by amblyopia. At Augenland Frankfurt, this subject is, of course, occasionally on the agenda for the ophthalmologists. In particular, the doctors at Augenland Frankfurt would like to point out the importance of early diagnosis in preventive examinations for this vision defect.
Especially for small children, it is advisable to take them at least once to a preventive examination to check whether they might be affected by amblyopia. Although even children, if only one eye is affected, do not necessarily notice it, this does not mean that amblyopia cannot represent a serious limitation. It should ideally be diagnosed already in childhood, because in adolescents and adults there is no longer any proven effective treatment option! Unfortunately, many children still come to preventive examinations too late, since with the general practitioner the first vision test is not carried out until the U8 preventive examination. By the age of 30 to 40 months at the latest, however, it is advisable to have even a child that seems to have no problems with the eyes examined as a precaution. For children with a family predisposition, or where parents notice that they squint, a preventive examination makes sense already from the age of six months. Because early examination is so important for children, Augenland Frankfurt offers it free of charge.
How things proceed afterwards if a child is diagnosed with a visual impairment depends on the type of vision defect. Squinting, for example, is treated differently than the amblyopia addressed here. The treatment of amblyopia consists to a significant extent of preventive care and vision therapy. Because unlike the eyes of older people, the eyes of children, which are still much more flexible, can still be trained to see as well as possible. That is why vision training basically always takes place before starting school, whether in cases like training against squinting or against amblyopia. It usually cannot completely correct amblyopia, but it can often significantly improve the eyes. A cure in the classical sense, a complete elimination of the impairment, therefore does not occur. But there is indeed a clear improvement in visual ability.
How does such vision training work? Essentially quite simple. In one-sided amblyopia, the vision defect of the eye is often unconsciously intensified by the affected child, because the child does not use the weak-sighted eye at all and instead relies even more on the other eye. As a therapy against this, the healthy eye is covered, so that during therapy the child learns to see with the other eye.
In some cases, the occurrence of amblyopia is associated with eye diseases; for example, it can be the result of congenital cataracts. In such cases, an operation must first be performed to remove the cause before therapy can begin. A refractive error (nearsightedness or farsightedness) can also occur in children with amblyopia and must first be corrected with glasses. Sometimes that is already sufficient, since a difference between the eyes can indeed lead to the habit of using one eye more than the other, which then leads to amblyopia in the neglected eye.
Like many other vision defects, amblyopia is also an example of a visual impairment that can have various causes and affect those affected in different degrees. At Augenland Frankfurt, we discuss individually with each patient what is best for them.
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