Wow Vision Therapy Blog

Amblyopia, or Lazy Eye, is the most common cause of vision loss in children. Moreover, parents are often told to follow a traditional model of amblyopia treatment involving occlusion therapy/eye patching of their child’s non-amblyopic eye for 2-4 hours a day for several months. In fact, eye patching has historically been the standard of care most eye doctors prescribe for treating children with Amblyopia, even though occlusion therapy has many problems associated with compliance, adverse side effects, and regression of visual acuity after patching is discontinued.

However, the time has come to reconsider occlusion therapy as the “best approach” for patients with Amblyopia. That is because there is newly published research through Elsevier, a systematic review and meta-analysis, the highest form of research analyzing virtual reality in vision therapy for Amblyopia in children compared to occlusion therapy, entitled: Effects of Virtual Reality on the Treatment of Amblyopia in Children: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The researchers’ results show, “Overall, virtual reality technology treatment significantly improved visual acuity…compared with traditional patching therapy.” 

At Wow Vision Therapy, we focus on delivering the best practices for our patients. Our Founder, Dr. Dan Fortenbacher, Grand Rapids Clinic Director, Dr. Alyssa Parz, Dr. Tuan Tran, and Dr. Brian Dornbos, have been leaders in the profession in the advancements of treating Amblyopia. In 2018, they co-authored the third Chapter in Volume 3 of Advances in Ophthalmology and Optometry: Vision Therapy and Virtual Reality Applications.

Please contact us if you want to learn more about vision therapy and virtual reality applications in amblyopia treatment. We have customized approaches to care that make it easier and more convenient, including our hybrid teletherapy options. The key is we tailor it to the patient and have the best-trained team of doctors and vision therapists to meet your child’s vision needs and get the best outcomes.

The evidence is clear; for those with Amblyopia, occlusion therapy is an outdated and less effective model of treatment now that we have research-based advances in virtual reality applications in vision therapy.

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