Can vision therapy reverse amblyopia?

Question

I had strabismus surgery at age 18 months. At approximately 6 years of age I was diagnosed with amblyopia. My opthomologist attempted to patch my good eye, but I was too old at that point.

I am now 43 years old.

Is it too late to try vision therapy?

Answer 1

Unfortunately I believe you are too old to improve sight in that eye.  The connection between the eyes and the brain is made at a very early age.  If the surgery and patching did not work, I doubt there is anything you can do now.  Sorry.  I would talk to your optometrist or ophthalmologist, though, just to make sure.

Answer 2

No it is not too late. You can have surgery at any age but you are only too old for other treatments.

Answer 3

I'm not an expert on this but I do know that my sister tried therapy and it didn't help her. She had also developed amblyopia as a child from having crossed eyes. She was about seven years old when her problem was detected and patching didn't help her either.

Answer 4

Good natural eyesight improvement teachers have very good success in teaching people with amblyopia how the eye can be reactivated and regain fusion. In fact people with amblyopia often have quicker success than those Relearning to See from nearsightedness and presbyopia.

For most people with amblyopia they had a weakness in their head, most often from infection, that made one of the eyes difficult to use. This made that eye blurry. Because this blurriness is very different from the good eye the brain turned the image from that eye off leaving it to wander towards the slightly stronger or more active muscles. Most people overcome the original weakness, but they never learn how to fuse or what it looks like to have fusion.

Vision therapy often deals with exercising the eyes and is often counter productive even in youth. Surgery helps cosmetically but the eye often grows back because the eye is not activated.