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The first thing we need to learn is that lazy eye, medically known as amblyopia, is the poor vision in an otherwise healthy eye. This disorder develops early on in life, usually around the age of six or so. It is caused by not having good visual transmission from the eye to the brain. The eye is perfectly healthy. It is the cells in part of the brain that deal with vision that are not getting proper stimulation. This disorder generally only happens in one eye, but if gone untreated, both eyes can be affected due to the strain it puts on the other eye. It can also lead to blindness in the eye with the amblyopia. Even though the eye has the ability to see, the brain shuts it off.

The cause of amblyopia can be several things, like trauma to the eye, going with untreated nearsightedness or farsightedness or having untreated crossed eyes. The symptoms of this disorder are generally eyestrain, overall poor vision in the one eye, squinting and/or closing one eye in order to see better. Headaches may formulate as well.

There are different types of treatments that can be done for lazy eye, but it is advisable that treatment be done at a very early age in order for it to do any good. Some of those treatments are vision therapy. That would involve the use of an eye patch to make the eye stronger by covering the unaffected eye. One might also wear corrective lenses if nearsightedness or farsightedness is the cause, or undergo corrective surgery for crossed eyes or vision problems. Also atrophine drops can be used instead of an eye patch, in which case the drops are put in the good eye each day to blur it, forcing the lazy eye to work harder.

The reason why most eye specialists believe that treatment for lazy eye must be done when it is first discovered, is because by the age of ten years old, the child has already gone through what is called the critical stage of vision. After that, being able to help this disorder will be much more limited.

Since Lasik surgery can correct farsightedness and nearsightedness, this would probably lead people to believe Lasik would work for a cure. That is not the case at all. Since the lazy eye has nothing to do with any type of muscle damage, it would make it hard for Lasik to correct this type of problem. As said before, this disorder occurs in the cells that help the brain visualize. If these cells are damaged the brain will not receive the proper signals that it receives to see out of the afflicted eye.

Lasik surgery is a wonderful procedure that a lot of patients have benefited from. Some things it just can not fix. For those that it can, the difference is astounding.