Recently, China Charity Federation’s Amblyopia Relief Program for Children with Vision Mindset was launched in Beijing, with a plan to help 20,000 amblyopic children from poor families nationwide to restore their vision in five years. There is a disease that is treatable but becomes incurable because of missed treatment time, and then loses its health forever, making people regret for life, especially for children. Amblyopia is one such disease. Amblyopia forms during the critical period of visual development Good vision is not acquired innately. When babies are born, their vision is less than 1% of an adult’s. As they grow older, both eyes develop and improve their visual cells. 6 years old is an important period for the development of visual function, and visual development continues until about 6 to 8 years old. If during this period due to some factors (such as strabismus, refractive error, congenital cataract, etc.) interference, resulting in binocular visual impairment, the visual cells do not get normal stimulation, so that the visual function stays at a low level, binocular vision is low, can not be corrected, the formation of binocular amblyopia; if you can only use one eye to see things, over time repeated stimulation of the visual development of one eye, while the other can not look at the development of If only one eye can see with one eye, over time the visual development of the one that is repeatedly stimulated is delayed, while the other eye that cannot focus is delayed, forming monocular amblyopia. Amblyopia can occur during visual development, mostly starting at the age of 1 to 2. The earlier the onset of amblyopia, the more severe it is. Clinically, amblyopia is diagnosed when the distance visual acuity is less than 0.9 and cannot be corrected due to functional factors without obvious organic lesions in the eye. The prevalence of amblyopia is high, especially in children Due to the differences in epidemiological survey methods, subjects and evaluation criteria, it is difficult to determine the incidence of amblyopia in the population. It is estimated that the current prevalence of amblyopia in China is 1.6% to 3.6%, and the prevalence of amblyopia in children is generally 2% to 4%, which means that about 10 million children suffer from amblyopia. The prevalence rate in less economically developed areas may be even higher. The overall prevalence of amblyopia in Western developed countries is about 3.0%, basically the same as in China. In recent years, there has been an increasing trend in reported prevalence of amblyopia, especially among urban children. This has been reported to be directly related to exposure to radiation or improper medication during pregnancy. Poor visual habits during a child’s growth, such as watching television or using the computer for too long, and unbalanced dietary nutrition with low intake of coarse grains and vitamins, may also induce amblyopia. This is also a problem that deserves more in-depth attention. In addition, the improvement of living and medical standards and the popularity of visual health care for children, so that more patients are screened out, are also factors. Early detection of amblyopia is crucial Contemporary medicine puts prevention of disease in the first place. Amblyopia should likewise be prevented. However, although early diagnosis is possible, at this stage there is no means to completely prevent the occurrence of amblyopia, especially when it arises from microstrabismus. Therefore, it is more important to focus on strengthening perinatal awareness and education efforts for pregnant women to reduce the birth of premature and below-gestational-age children in high-risk groups for visual development disorders. The kindergarten caregivers, teachers, and parents should work closely together to screen preschool and school-age children for visual acuity and refractive status and conduct routine eye examinations to detect moderate and high refractive errors, suspected amblyopia, strabismus, and other eye diseases that affect visual development, and to provide timely consultation and early treatment. children over the age of 3 should be taught to read vision charts. In addition, multiple forms of visual function health promotion should be promoted to bring amblyopia to the attention of more people. Every parent should be concerned about their child’s vision development during the developmental process. If a child has strabismus in the eyes, a habit of tilting the head when looking at things, or a tendency to squint in bright light, these are all risk factors for the formation of amblyopia and should be examined promptly at a hospital. Parents can also use tests such as the bean picking method when the child’s vision is normal, and can go to the hospital promptly if abnormalities are found. The earlier the treatment, the better. The critical period of visual development is from a few months of life to about 6 years old, if you miss the best “golden time” of visual development, the late treatment, vision will lose the normal development process and opportunity. Just like when a child’s critical period of growth is over, it is unlikely that he or she will grow in any other way. Amblyopia is a developmental eye disease, and the younger the child, the more effective the treatment. The best age is 2 to 6 years old, and because of the long treatment course, close cooperation between the child and parents is needed to improve the child’s compliance with treatment in order to achieve the ideal treatment effect. If amblyopia is detected after the age of 9, there is often no significant treatment effect; if it is detected after the age of 12, the retina is already well developed, so there is little treatment value. In addition, the lighter the degree of amblyopia, the more obvious the treatment effect. However, this treatment time is not absolute, and clinical practice suggests that partial results can be achieved after treatment in older children or adults with amblyopia. Covering therapy is still the basic method of amblyopia treatment. Before starting treatment for amblyopia, it is important to clarify whether the patient has central or paracentral gaze, and then choose a different method, especially for paracentral gaze patients, first to “correct the bias” and avoid “treating all the same”. The first step is to “correct” and avoid “uniformity”. Masking therapy is a simple and easy way to treat amblyopia, and is recognized as the most effective method. This is done by making an eye patch out of black cloth and placing it over the eye to be covered or over the glasses of the eye to be covered. Different colors and patterns can also be used on the outer surface of the eye shield. The purposes of using masking therapy include: masking the dominant eye to force the use of the amblyopic eye alone for fixation; and eliminating the inhibition of the amblyopic eye from the dominant eye. The advantages are that it is simple and convenient, can be treated at home, and costs less. The disadvantages are that it affects the appearance of the amblyopic eye, the poor visual acuity of the amblyopic eye affects the learning and life of the child, and it is not easy to adhere to the treatment; and the compliance of the masking treatment has a direct effect on the treatment results, especially for older children, the compliance of the masking treatment is poor, and the masking treatment is not suitable for refractive error amblyopia with similar visual acuity in both eyes, and long-term monocular masking is not good for establishing binocular visual function. Regular visits to a regular medical institution should be made to observe the improvement of visual acuity and changes in the nature of gaze in the amblyopic eye, the visual acuity of the healthy eye, and the degree of compliance with the treatment method. It is also important to ensure that the child has effective masking treatment for a specified period of time. After the visual acuity of the amblyopic eye has improved significantly, the masking should not be removed immediately, but should be changed gradually under the guidance of the doctor. Prevention of recurrence of amblyopia and masked amblyopia. There are many dynamic options for amblyopia treatment training that need to be selected at any time, and the treatment plan should be continuously adjusted as the condition progresses. In addition, amblyopia examination and treatment is a long-term process and must be reviewed regularly so that the doctor can further adjust the program according to the treatment. During the treatment process, it is important to prevent over-exaggerating the usefulness of adjuvant therapy instruments, to avoid adding unnecessary burdens to patients and parents due to certain profit-driven, and to standardize the diagnosis and treatment of amblyopia.