My friend has a weak eye (lazy eye) and is always the but of a joke what can he do about it?

Question

My friend has a weak eye (lazy eye) and is always the but of a joke what can he do about it?

Answer 1

If your friend has bad vision in the weak eye and unless your friend is under about 10 years old, there is nothing that can really be done about it.  The brain kind of "shuts off" the vision in that eye because during childhood, the image that the eye produced were bad and it's too confusing to the brain.  The eye muscles are told by the brain to "find" what we're looking at, but if the brain doesn't use the eye, the muscles don't worry about staying completely lined up and the eye moves differently.  Here is a simple article about it:

Answer 2

It depends on his age.  He should see an Opthamologist (not an Optometrist) to discuss treatment.  There is surgery for it, but it usually doesn't work for adults.  There is a special kind of glasses with prism that helps some people.  Also, the Dr. might have him retrain his weak eye by putting special eye drops in his good eye to weaken it, which forces the lazy eye to work harder.  A long time ago they used to make kids wear eye patches on their good eye, but now they use the drops instead.

Answer 3

Depending on his age, the treatment options will vary.  Here s a brief summary.

age 1 to 12 :  eye surgery to straighten the eye by an Ophthalmolgist who specializes in children's vision, then vision therapy by a certified Optometrist to improve vision and eye muscle coordination.

age 12 and older:  surgery to straighten eyes, but vision will most likely not improve with vision therapy.

OR

age 12 and older:  glasses with prism prescribed by an Optometrist (one of their specialties) to make the eyes look straight, but will not permanently correct the problem.