First, I will start by explaining why doctors recommend monoculars. There are several main situations and phenomena.
1. One phenomenon is that monocular amblyopia usually occurs in children of advanced age. Why? Because we all have two eyes, which work independently and interact with each other, and in monocular amblyopia, if a child is completely healthy in one eye, the other eye has amblyopia. At this time, the child can see clearly but only with the healthy eye, so without outside intervention the child does not know that one eye has a problem, and when time goes by, the child keeps seeing with the healthy eye and not with the amblyopic eye, the amblyopic eye becomes weaker and weaker, and when it becomes so weak that it affects the vision of the healthy eye, it is often six or seven years old, or even eleven or twelve years old. By this time, the best time for amblyopia treatment has passed.
Therefore, we will find two major characteristics of monocular amblyopia.
First, the age of the amblyopic eye.
Second, the amblyopic eye generally has low corrected visual acuity, below 0.3, and the lowest I’ve ever seen is 0.12. It’s almost like the non-functioning eye is hanging on the face. This description is a little scary, but it’s true.
Third, poor visual function.
These are the common cases of monocular amblyopia in older children.
2. There is another scenario, starting with the one mentioned above, where the child is unaware of the problem in one eye when there is no outside intervention. Fortunately, we have a lot of outside intervention, for example, kindergartens have started physical examinations, and most amblyopic children are found to have amblyopia when they receive a physical examination at the age of 4, 5 or 6 years old. Monocular amblyopia is also included in the middle. Because amblyopia is detected early, the amblyopic eye has not degenerated very much, and some vision can be improved through correction. The following conditions are often detected at this time.
First, the age is appropriate.
Second, the corrected visual acuity of the amblyopic eye, and the corrected visual acuity of the healthy eye are relatively close to each other, within 4 lines of each other.
Third, the visual function is not good.
3, then I will introduce what is a healthy eye, healthy eyes must meet the following points.
First of all, binocular visual function includes the following three levels.
1, simultaneous visual function – the ability of both eyes to see the same target object at the same time;
2, fusion function – the ability of the two eyes to see the same target object formed by the two images into one;
3, stereo vision – the ability of both eyes to determine the level and spatial location of the target object.
Second: healthy vision includes three levels of connotation.
One, is to see clearly;
Second, is to see comfortable;
Thirdly, it is the ability to see for a long time.
In fact, the ultimate goal of amblyopia treatment is not only to improve the visual acuity of the amblyopic eye, but also to strive for the best possible binocular visual function at all times, and the reconstruction and restoration of binocular visual function is not inevitable with the improvement of monocular visual acuity. For patients with refractive amblyopia, refractive aberration amblyopia, and some strabismic amblyopia, appropriate eyeglasses play a crucial role in the reconstruction and restoration of binocular vision.
Simply put, monocular amblyopia training can only improve the visual acuity of the amblyopic eye, but this is not the end of the process. The two eyes may not be able to fuse the objects they see into a clear image, and may not be able to watch 3D movies.
In these cases, it is often necessary to retrain the visual function, and the doctor will ask you to buy a simultaneous vision training device. The binocular device itself comes with simultaneous vision training. Individual simultaneous vision training devices are usually around 1500, while monocular and binocular devices are often priced at 500 or less. This is one of the reasons why I recommend choosing a binocular device for monocular amblyopia. But I’m not saying that all monocular amblyopia should buy binoculars, here is a simple way to judge, if the monocular amblyopia of children with a difference of more than two lines of corrected visual acuity in both eyes, I would recommend using binoculars, because the later will certainly use simultaneous vision, fusion vision, stereo vision training of these three functions.
Another reason is that all the functions of the monocular are available in the binocular, but not all the functions of the binocular are available in the monocular. I believe that we all have a judgment here.