Amblyopia / Lazy Eye - Does this treatment work?

Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this company which
claims it has success in correcting a Amblyopia .
http://www.msobiz.com/site/nvc/


I also found this BBC News report about Amblyopia:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4849244.stm

Company info here:
http://www.virart.nott.ac.uk/ibit/

billy bob

On Feb 19, 7:44 am, mail306...@10minutemail.com wrote:
> Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this company which
> claims it has success in correcting a Amblyopia .http://www.msobiz.com/site/nvc/
>
> I also found this BBC News report about Amblyopia:
>
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4849244.stm
>
> Company info here:http://www.virart.nott.ac.uk/ibit/
>
> billy bob

Interesting. That gizmo reminded me of an instrument we used in
optometry school, called an "amblyoscope."

The other link about the video racing game reminded me of the
techniques we used in optometry school to help eliminate suppression.
One of the most popular was a game called "Pong." It was basically a
table tennis game with variable speed and difficulty. I used to tabe
a red cellulose filter on one side and a green filter on the other
side of the screen and have the child wear red/green glasses.

DrG

I in my thirties and have a lazy eye.

Is there any point in me getting vision therapy (conventional or
otherwise)?

I did some googling and most of the info I came across said that if
amblyopia was not
cured a young age, than it was almost impossible to fix in adults.

Where do you think the amblyopia condition will be in say 5/10/15
years?


billy bob

Dear Dr. Susan,



I am not having much luck here in the UK. I went to another optician
today and was told that Amblyopia is untreatable in adults.



The first optician didn't even mention the condition, just told me I
needed glasses.

The second one told me there was a slim chance (10-20%) of me being
able to improve my vision if I was to try treatment, and didn't
encourage it at all.



I have to say I am pretty disappointed in the optometry profession,
there seems to be a lot of defensiveness when a patient does his own
research and wants to find improvements in ways other than taking to
wearing glasses.



The messages I am getting:



Amblyopia is untreatable in adults.

After pushing...

Ok, you may get some improvements, but it's slim

After insisting...

Ok, you can find out how severe your condition is but I don't
encourage, (why not?)

After more insisting...

I'll write a referral note, which will take me 10 seconds, so you can
go and have it investigated further and find out if its treatable.
Just get out of my office and stop wasting my time...oh! and don't
forget to pay at reception





I managed to squeeze a referral note from the second optician, who
wrote the 'patient wishes to pursue specialist advice based on his own
research'.





Abid Ghani



-----Original Message-----
From: (E-Mail Removed) [private.php?do=newpm&u=]
Sent: 23 February 2007 02:59
To: (E-Mail Removed)
Subject: Re: amblyopia



Dear Mr Ghani

There are many reasons why someone might develop amblyopia. Some are
treatable with Visual Therapy and some are not. please see this
website www.covd.org it may help you locate a behavioral optometrist
that treats amblyopia in your country.


Sincerely,

Dr. Susan C. Danberg OD FCOVD
Global Clinical Advisor SOLCIOE
tel 860-657-9189
eve 203-248-6334
cel 203-627-1084
fax 203-248-1132





On 20 Feb, 20:19, "Dr Judy" <mpac...@rogers.com> wrote:
> On Feb 20, 5:23 am, mail306...@10minutemail.com wrote:
>
> > I in my thirties and have a lazy eye.
>
> > Is there any point in me getting vision therapy (conventional or
> > otherwise)?
>
> > I did some googling and most of the info I came across said that if
> > amblyopia was not
> > cured a young age, than it was almost impossible to fix in adults.
>
> Whether it is worth trying depends on why you are amblyopic, how deep
> it is, whether you are suppressing the bad eye and whether you had any
> therapy before age 17. There are some tests that sort of predict
> improvement.
>
> Amblyopia due to strabismis, due to visual obstruction at birth, deep
> amblyopia (VA 20/200 or worse) or no previous therapy have less chance
> of success.
>
> If your amblyopia is due to large refractive error differences, if you
> have a lot of astigmatism, if you are not strabismic, if you had some
> therapy for even a limited time as a child or your current best
> corrected acuity is better than 20/100 you have some chance of
> improvement.
>
> Because of the very individual factors, you need to find an
> optometrist or orthoptist who does a lot of vision therapy, have an
> assessement and decide with the therapist whether it is worth trying.
>
> > Where do you think the amblyopia condition will be in say 5/10/15
> > years?
>
> Therapy hasn't really changed much in the past 100 years -- the
> solution is to catch it early, correct refractive error or strabismus
> and force use of the eye through patching and therapy. I don't think
> there will be much change to that. The specific therapy and mode of
> patching may vary, as in the gizmo you described but the fundmentals
> are the same.
>
> Dr Judy
>
>
>
> > billy bob- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

In article <(E-Mail Removed). com>,
(E-Mail Removed) wrote:


> I am not having much luck here in the UK. I went to another optician
> today and was told that Amblyopia is untreatable in adults.

> I have to say I am pretty disappointed in the optometry profession,
> there seems to be a lot of defensiveness when a patient does his own
> research and wants to find improvements in ways other than taking to
> wearing glasses.

Sometimes people have legs that are too short. They reach to the
ground, but the patients still want them longer. The leg doctors refuse
to treat this. Why is that?

On Feb 27, 8:27 am, Dan Abel <d...@sonic.net> wrote:
> In article <1172583905.864049.193...@q2g2000cwa.googlegroups. com>,
>
> abid.gh...@bosscomputing.com wrote:
> > I am not having much luck here in the UK. I went to another optician
> > today and was told that Amblyopia is untreatable in adults.
> > I have to say I am pretty disappointed in the optometry profession,
> > there seems to be a lot of defensiveness when a patient does his own
> > research and wants to find improvements in ways other than taking to
> > wearing glasses.
>
> Sometimes people have legs that are too short. They reach to the
> ground, but the patients still want them longer. The leg doctors refuse
> to treat this. Why is that?

Perhaps this poster was referring to options like vision therapy--
widely believed to offer promise in amblyopic patients.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Citation

OR: http://tinyurl.com/39jcn6

Has anybody else noticed that--recently AND over YEARS--our favorite
Net Loon (yes, Otis: that's you) has changed the tenor and timbre of
perfectly reasonable posters to borderline-snappy AND .... caused the
overwhelming exodus of those compassionate docs who--for whatever
their individual reasons--HAD chosen to help the inquisitive souls in
ocular need.

If you HAD a conscience, Otis, it would trouble you for all eternity.
The damage you do--both directly and indirectly--is nearly
incalculable.

I'm counting on the State of Pennsylvania, though, to continue trying
to calculate....

On Feb 27, 12:32 pm, "Dr Judy" <mpac...@rogers.com> wrote:
> On Feb 27, 8:45 am, abid.gh...@bosscomputing.com wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > Dear Dr. Susan,
>
> > I am not having much luck here in the UK. I went to another optician
> > today and was told that Amblyopia is untreatable in adults.
>
> > The first optician didn't even mention the condition, just told me I
> > needed glasses.
>
> > The second one told me there was a slim chance (10-20%) of me being
> > able to improve my vision if I was to try treatment, and didn't
> > encourage it at all.
>
> > I have to say I am pretty disappointed in the optometry profession,
> > there seems to be a lot of defensiveness when a patient does his own
> > research and wants to find improvements in ways other than taking to
> > wearing glasses.
>
> The optometrists you have seen are just being honest and realistic.
> Amblyopia therapy in adults is not very successful, especially if
> there is deep amblyopia, strabismus, large refractive error difference
> between the eyes and no previous history of therapy.
>
> Your goal of achieving improvement without glasses is not attainable.
> The first step in amblyopia therapy is to fully correct refractive
> error in the amblyopic eye which means glasses or contact lenses. The
> glasses need to be worn before, during and after therapy. If good
> acuity can be established in the amblyopic eye, you will need to
> continue to wear glasses to see well, stopping the glasses will mean
> poor vision. If a patient refuses to wear glasses, there is no point
> in attempting amblyopia therapy.
>
> Vision therapy works best in children under age 6, fair results in
> children age 6 to 12, some improvement in children age 12 to 17,
> little to no improvement in adults.
>
> Vision therapy is available in the UK mostly via orthoptists and I
> suspect most of them are associated with children's hospitals or
> children's vision clinic. You can contact the British Orthoptist
> Association for names.
>
> http://www.orthoptics.org.uk/
>
> Dr Judy- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

The real pity is that he didn't have this diagnosed as a child when
therapy might have had a chance of working.

DrG