Toronto, May 30, 2012 – Download the Press Release
Toronto, May 30, 2012 – A new case report published in a leading optometric journal shows that it may no longer be necessary to use “patching” to treat children with amblyopia, otherwise known as “lazy eye”. Instead, the use of the patent-pending SHAW™ lens is preferred to patching as a treatment of what is the most common cause of preventable blindness in children.
Amblyopia is a type of serious vision impairment that occurs in approximately 2 out of 100 healthy children, but even this number may be underreported, as cases are often believed to go undiagnosed. It has been traditionally treated by suppressing the vision in the one “good” eye using either a patch or chemical eye drops.
Now a case report published in Optometry & Vision Development* shows that the time taken to correct the amblyopia is significantly reduced by using eye glass lenses only available from Shaw Lens Inc. and, best of all, vision suppression using a patch or chemical drops may not be necessary.
“Occlusion therapy or patching a child’s good eye for hours at a time is now an “old school” approach,” says Dr. Peter J. Shaw OD, and co-founder of Shaw Lens Inc. “It is, in some ways, cruel and it does not address the underlying cause which is the lack of binocular (two-eyed) vision development.”
In amblyopia, the loss of vision is not from a disease of the eye but is caused when an infant’s brain stops developing normally from the lack of proper “two-eyed” visual input. As a result, even with a healthy eye structure, the child is not able to see clearly from the affected or “lazy” eye. Typically, a child with amblyopia will have 20/20 eye sight in one eye and the other eye will be poor.
The article states that the use of a SHAW lens enhances binocular vision and is preferred to patching as a first step in the treatment of amblyopia. In addition to treatment with a SHAW lens, today’s best practice approach for the treatment of amblyopia involves a combination of monocular and binocular training of the visual brain through office-based vision therapy. This is done under the direct supervision of a Doctor of Optometry.
The SHAW lens is the only truly binocular eyeglass lens – designed in consideration with the way both eyes work together. Requiring binocular vision assessment, these one of a kind digital lenses are only manufactured by Shaw Lens Inc.
Produced by a major international lens manufacturing company, using a patent-pending design, SHAW lenses are available in single vision, progressive and bifocal lenses in clear, Transitions®, polarized and a wide range of tints. All lenses are AR, Oleo and Hydro coated.
Founded by optometrist, Dr. Peter J. Shaw, adjunct research associate professor at the University of Waterloo, Shaw Lens Inc. believes that the only way to deliver the best glasses is through the optometrist. Eyeglasses are complex medical devices, and nothing replaces the skill, care and attention that patients get from an independent optometrist.
Shaw Lens Inc. is a Canadian registered corporation that currently distributes its patent-pending prescription eye glass lenses via independent optometrists through out North America. More information is available at shawlens.com.
* Optometry & Vision Development Journal, Volume 43, No 2, 2012. Optometry & Vision Development (OVD) is the official publication of the College of Optometrists in Vision Development (COVD.org). OVD is a quarterly, refereed journal that is indexed in Psychological Abstracts and Ocular Resources.
