What are eye patches used for?

Eye patches serve a variety of purposes beyond dressing up as a pirate for Halloween. In everyday life, wearing an eye patch usually means you’re healing from surgery, an injury or an eye disease. For children, eye patches can provide a practical way to trick the eyes into fixing vision problems. Indeed, if you or somebody you know has to wear an eye patch, you might have questions such as:

• How many types of eye patches are there to choose from? 

• What kinds of problems do eye patches solve?   

• How do I encourage a child to use an eye patch as directed by a doctor?

• Is it okay to start wearing an eye patch if I start experiencing vision issues? 

Let’s start walking through some answers to these questions. (Just for fun, we’ll close with a nifty tidbit about eye patches and pirates). 

What are the most common varieties of eye patches?

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

• Adhesive – These eye patches work like the bandages in a first-aid kit: They use a sticky substance to hold them in place over the eye.  

• Non-adhesive – These eye patches are made of soft, comfy cloth and a band that wraps around the head to hold the patch in place. 

• Eyeglass lens covers – These devices, usually made of plastic, block vision from one half of a pair of eyeglasses. Some are designed to wrap around eyeglass frames to prevent the eye from trying to focus on nearby objects. 

Each of these varieties has its pluses and minuses. Children are apt to enjoy the more playful variations of eye patches, but the final decision should come down to a doctor’s recommendations.