I was told I have atrophy of the optic nerve. Is there any way I can get vision in that eye?
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Answer transcribed from Brightway's Interview with Dr. Bryce Appelbaum:
Yes and no. Optic atrophy of something that you're born with is different from optic atrophy of something that's been acquired. I think the real question is what activities of daily living are impacted. If it's just a matter of reversing a diagnosis, it's hard to but knowing that the optic nerve which has been damaged with atrophy is what correlates to our periphery, oftentimes you can with the right prism or lenses raised to somebody's awareness the area of the periphery that has been dampened. In some cases, you can also force the brain to be utilized in ways that it was avoiding so that you can rely on the other eye or a certain input from both eyes in certain fields to fill in missing gaps just from an activity as a daily living and functional standpoint.