Why do children suffer from amblyopia?

There are many kinds of problems with people's eyes. The most common one is myopia. Many people wear glasses for myopia. There is also a problem called amblyopia, which is also a very harmful eye problem. If amblyopia is not treated in time, it may even lead to blindness. If it happens to children, parents need to pay more attention to it. What causes amblyopia in children?

Why do children suffer from amblyopia?

There are many factors that cause amblyopia in children. The most common one is anisometropia, in which the refractive surfaces of the two eyes are different, one eye has a high degree and the other has a low degree, one eye has good vision and the other has poor vision. The eye with poor vision suffers from long-term visual deprivation, leading to amblyopia. There are also refractive errors, including some congenital causes, such as congenital cataracts, congenital ptosis, or trauma that causes form deprivation in one eye. During the process of visual development, the eye cannot achieve normal vision, thus causing amblyopia.

Why is it that living conditions are getting better, but children’s eyesight is getting worse? Is my child's poor eyesight due to myopia or amblyopia? Is there any hope for my child’s amblyopia to recover? As the prevalence of amblyopia in children increases, many mothers worry whether their babies have amblyopia. Here is a brief introduction.

There is a difference between amblyopia and myopia

Amblyopia is a condition in which the best corrected visual acuity of one or both eyes is lower than normal, and ophthalmological examination shows no organic changes in the eyeball corresponding to the decreased vision. The corrected vision here refers to the vision after correction of refractive errors, commonly known as vision while wearing glasses.

The difference between amblyopia and myopia is that if the vision can be corrected to normal after accurate optometry, it is myopia; if it cannot be corrected to normal, it is amblyopia.

Amblyopia and myopia are not the same concepts. Myopia is caused by excessive tension of the ciliary muscle, the eye's accommodative muscle, or by genetic reasons, which causes the eye axis to lengthen. It is difficult to see clearly at a distance, but vision can usually be restored to normal after wearing glasses to correct it. Myopia is a type of refractive error. Amblyopia is a disease in which the visual function is delayed and disordered, often accompanied by strabismus and high refractive errors, and the vision cannot be corrected to normal even with glasses.

The harm caused by amblyopia and physiological myopia to children's visual function is different. Because myopia only means a decrease in vision when looking far away, with no or only slight damage to visual function, most vision corrections are not subject to age restrictions. However, children with amblyopia not only have low vision that cannot be corrected, but may also lack binocular single vision and stereoscopic vision, and will not be able to perform driving, surveying and mapping, and other delicate work in the future, which not only affects their career prospects but also directly affects the quality of the population.