What Is Myopia Control?

Slow the progression of your child’s nearsightedness.

Does your child have difficulty seeing distant objects?

Myopia (nearsightedness) typically starts to develop in childhood and often progresses until about age 20.

Although an outright cure for nearsightedness has not been discovered, we are now able to offer a number of treatments to help slow the progression of myopia in children.

Why should you be interested in myopia control? Because slowing the progression of myopia may keep your child from developing high levels of nearsightedness that require thick, corrective eyeglasses and have been associated with pathologic visual conditions later in life, such as early cataracts, glaucoma or even a detached retina.

Regular glasses and contact lenses can help kids with myopia see more clearly, but they do not slow down it’s progression, which means kids may need increasingly stronger prescriptions as they continue to grow. However, certain types of contact lenses—including soft lenses—can slow down the speed at which myopia develops.

The best way to take advantage of methods to control myopia is to detect nearsightedness early. Early childhood eye exams are especially important if you or your spouse are nearsighted or your child’s older siblings have myopia or other vision problems. Request an appointment for your children today.

Myopia is on the rise

Nearsightedness is a growing concern in the US and other countries.

It is estimated that by the year 2050, roughly half of the world’s population will be affected by this eye condition.

Many researchers believe the rise can be attributed to more time spent staring at screens and less time outdoors.

How do you “control” myopia?

Determining a myopia control plan for your child starts with a visit to your eye doctor. Schedule your appointment now.

There are a few main approaches to controlling myopia in children, including:

Multifocal contacts lenses

Multifocal contact lenses are special contacts that have different powers in different zones of the lens.

Researchers and eye doctors have found that multifocal soft contact lenses are also effective tools for myopia control in children. Some research demonstrates that using soft multifocal lenses in children caused a 25-50% reduction in progression over 2 years.

Orthokeratology (Ortho-K)

Ortho-k — also known as Corneal Refractive Therapy (CRT) or “corneal reshaping lenses” — is a non-surgical approach that helps to reshape the curvature of your child’s cornea using specially designed gas-permeable contact lenses.

Ortho-K contact lenses are only worn during sleep at night and are used to temporarily correct mild to moderate myopia symptoms.

Evidence suggests that nearsighted children who undergo several years of orthokeratology may end up with less myopia as adults.

Atropine eye drops

Topical atropine is a medicine used to dilate the pupil and temporarily relax the eye’s focusing mechanism and has been used in myopia control for years.

Several studies show that low-dose atropine helps to reduce the progression of myopia in children, especially when combined with Ortho-K lenses.

If you’d like to learn more about myopia control, request an appointment at Vision Source of Crystal Falls today.