A lazy eye, or Amblyopia, is a vision disorder affecting children and adults.
The consequence of this visual disorder is poor (or deficient) vision in one of the eyes due to a lack of visual stimulation during a critical stage in visual development, without any injury or alteration in the structure of the eye.
In this situation, the two eyes lose or diminish their ability to work together to give the brain a correct image. The brain gets used to prioritizing the information the more assertive or dominant eye provides, thus favoring it.
Even though this so-called ‘lazy’ eye may be physically healthy, the brain omits the image it receives from this eye since it is too different from the image provided by the other eye.
On the other hand, it should be noted that lazy eye or Amblyopia is not the same as strabismus. These are two different disorders that are often confused.
Strabismus is an oculomotor deviation (of the eye muscles) in which the eye cannot move correctly, creating a deviation.
It is true, however, that strabismus can be one of the causes of ‘Lazy Eye.’
Now that we have refreshed our memory on the definition of Amblyopia let’s get into what causes Amblyopia to develop.