1.1 What are eye patches used for?

Eye patches are commonly used to treat a variety of eye conditions:

1. Amblyopia (lazy eye): One eye has weaker vision than the other. [3]
2. Strabismus (crossed eyes): Where the eyes are misaligned. [4]
3. Diplopia (double vision): Where a person sees two images of a single object.
4. Eye injuries or surgery: An eye patch is used to protect the eye and aid in the healing process.

1.2 Is double vision the most common reason people use an eye patch?

No, double vision is not the most common reason people use an eye patch.

The most common use of an eye patch is for the treatment of amblyopia (lazy eye) in children, where an eye patch is placed over the dominant eye to strengthen the weaker eye.

It's important to clarify that amblyopia is a completely different condition than double vision:

• In healthy vision, both eyes are equally strong and work together with each other almost seamlessly.
• While double vision causes vision problems because both eyes are similarly strong and compete with each other.
• And amblyopia causes vision problems because both eyes are not equally strong, and one eye clearly dominates the other eye.

1.3 What are the most common types of eye patching?

Anything that blocks proper vision can work as an eye patch, but most patches come in these varieties: 

• Adhesive patch: These eye patches are sticky. You can put them on your eyes and they stick to it, similar to a band-aid. Typically, medical professionals such (as an eye doctor) are using these types of eye patches.
• Non-adhesive patch: Instead of using a sticky substance, these types of eye patches use a wrap to hold the eye patch in place. Similar to a pirate.
• Eyeglass lens covers: This type of patching is usually made for people that wear glasses, as using adhesive patches when you wear glasses is typically quite uncomfortable. These eyeglass lens covers are used on top of your glasses, with the key purpose to block vision from one half of a pair of eyeglasses.

1.4 How long should you wear an eye patch?

Typically, your eye doctor will recommend to start with wearing an eye patch 2 hours per day. Then, if results are not as good as hoped, the duration of the patching can be changed to up to 6 hours or longer per day. [5]

2.1 What does wearing an eye patch do for lazy eye?

When we're young, our brains learn to use both inputs of the left and right eye - and fuse them together into a full, coherent one.

The area in the brain where this happens is called the visual cortex. You can imagine the visual cortex as the computer that takes the image of the left and right eye and combines it into a new one.

In some people, largely due to eye misalignment/strabismus in early life [6], the brain has not learned to fuse the two images together...

... and instead, creates an overly dominant eye and a weaker eye. [7]

2.3 Can an eye patch fix a weak eye?

The overly dominant eye and a weaker eye is a mal-adaptive response of our brain to a problem. Relying on one eye alone is not great, but it's good enough.

And for survival, that's all that matters.

You can imagine this as a person that breaks the leg in pre-historic times. The body simply starts to use one leg only, irrespective of the wear and tear that way of moving has on the overly used healthy leg. So optimizing for survival and long-term health is different.

We have to use strategies to strengthen the weaker eye by shutting off the dominant eye, and forcing the weaker eye to be stronger.

That's where using an eye patch comes in: "Use it or lose it", they say. I'd add to that and say: "Use it, and you might re-gain it".

2.4 Can wearing an eye patch improve vision in adults?

Yes, an eye patch can improve poor vision because of a phenomena called neural plasticity. [8]

Eye patches can force the brain to re-wire itself to rely more on the weaker eye. That's why eye patches affect vision positively.

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While eye patch therapy is a wonderful first-line treatment for lazy eye, it has some clear downsides:

1. It is not always effective.
2. Some eye patches can cause skin irritation
3. Full time patching feels very weird: It's weirdly enough incredibly uncomfortable to have one eye that is blocked out constantly.
4. And the biggest downside: It's very awkward socially. I personally couldn't even go to a supermarket without being constantly stared at.

Here are the most common alternatives to an eye patch:

3.1 Alternatives To An Eyepatch

There are a few alternatives to using an eye patch for the treatment of lazy eye or other eye conditions:

1. Atropine eye drops: These drops are used to blur the vision in the good eye, forcing the weaker eye to work harder. This is a non-awkward alternative to patching, but still feels very weird to not have proper function in one eye.
2. Bangerter filters: These are transparent filters that can be placed on the eyeglasses of the good eye to blur the vision in that eye, which forces the weaker eye to work harder. Is barely visible, so better socially. But again, still feels very weird to not have proper function in one eye.
3. Vision therapy: This type of therapy involves exercises to improve eye coordination and strengthen the weaker eye. The biggest downside of regular vision therapy is that it's very expensive and time-consuming.

3.2 Can you use vision therapy to train a weak eye?

We've seen before that the biggest upside to using an eye patch is that:

• An eye patch is cost-effective...
• ... quick to implement, and...
• ... easy to use.

All of these benefits regular vision therapy does not have. Typically, vision therapy is:

• ... Expensive...
• ... requires you going to an eye doctor (which costs time and effort), and...
• ... difficult to do.

So while regular vision therapy is preferrable to wearing eye patches for social reasons, it's still not a very good solution.

After doing eye patch patching as a child, as an adult - and after surgery...

... and doing vision therapy with little to no long-term results...

... I've decided to build my own artificial intelligence solution:

3.3 Lazyeyefix AI as an alternative to eye patches in adults

Lazyeyefix Ai is a software that you can download immediately, that doesn't break the bank - and is not awkward at all (in fact most people won't even notice that you're training).

Even better: It requires no additional training time and you can use the software while watching Netflix or Youtube.

The software works by providing artificial intelligence based biofeedback, in plain English this means: It analyzes your eye position and can tell you exactly when your eyes are slipping off (meaning: The eyes are not working together).

It is similar to a weighing scale in weight loss: It's crucial to know that you're moving in the right direction - and stepping on a weighing scale alone will help you lose weight. [9]

It's how Peter Drucker, best-selling author said: "What gets measured, gets managed."

So far, there hasn't been a metaphorical weighing scale in vision therapy - until now. And it's an amazing solution for everyone suffering from strabismus and lazy eye.

You can start your free trial (no credit card required) here:

Windows: Download

Mac: Download

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