Myopia Management Blog
Myopia is one of the most common vision problems in the world. It usually appears early in life and can progress and worsen over time.
If you’re a parent, you know that your child’s vision is one of the most important things to keep an eye on (pun intended). How can you help slow the progression of myopia (nearsightedness) in your child?
Thankfully, there are many options available to you to help slow the progression of myopia. This includes things you and your child can do at home like:
- Spending more time outdoors
- Making sure your child eats well
- Taking breaks from close-up work
Options available with the help of your optometrist include:
- Regular eye exams
- Wearing the right eyewear
There are several steps you can take to help slow myopia progression in your child, both at home and with the help of your trusted optometrist.
What Lens Can Be Used For Myopia Control?
Orthokeratology (Ortho-K)
Orthokeratology, also known as ortho-k, is a corneal reshaping lens. These durable and rigid contact lenses help control and correct myopia. They gently reshape the cornea overnight, allowing your child to see clearly throughout the day without needing corrective eyewear.
Ortho-k contact lenses flatten the centre of the cornea to change how light bends as it enters the eye, correcting your child’s vision. These lenses are safe and effective—2018 research discovered these contacts can slow myopia progression by 36–56% in children.
MiSight and Abiliti Contact Lenses
MiSight contact lenses and more recently Abiliti contact lenses have a unique design specialized for children with myopia. They’re disposable lenses your child replaces daily, making them easy and safe to use for even younger children. These lenses can help correct and control myopia by creating myopic defocus, a technique to change how the eye focuses light.
The lens centre helps correct your child’s vision, and contains different types of myopia treatment zones to help focus light in front of the retina instead of behind the retina, shifting your child’s focal point of vision and tricking the eye into not growing.
Soft daily myopia control contact lenses can help slow myopia progression by up to 59% in children.
SightGlass
SightGlass is a new way to help control and correct myopia in children. These eyeglasses feature thousands of micro-dots in the lens, helping scatter light and reduce contrast on the retina (D.O.T. technology). 2020 research found these glasses slowed myopia progression in 85% of the children in the study, with myopia progressing less than a dioptre. This may be the best available lens option for younger age groups (especially <8 years old) and Foresee Eyecare is recognized as an authorized site that specializes in prescribing this lens.
MiyoSmart Glasses
MiyoSmart glasses can help your child see better while slowing myopic progression. These glasses utilize defocus incorporated multiple segments (D.I.M.S.) technology to help images focus in front of the retina instead of behind the retina, known as myopic defocus.
A MiyoSmart lens features a central zone for correcting myopia. Additionally, it has several ring-shaped zones surrounding the lens to slow myopia progression. 2019 research found that the DIMS technology used in MiyoSmart lenses can help slow myopia progression by up to 60% in children over 2 years.
Stellest Lenses
Stellest lenses feature H.A.L.T. technology to help correct and control your child’s myopia. These lenses have tons of tiny lenses (known as lenslets), which help slow down myopia progression. When worn 12 hours a day, Stellest lenses can slow myopia by up to 67%.
Modern genetic testing is truly incredible. Today, we can screen for genetic diseases and begin treatment much earlier than in the past, allowing many potentially affected individuals the chance to enjoy a higher quality of life.
One of the leading corneal genetic disorders today is keratoconus, a condition that impacts millions of Americans every year. This is a condition in which the cornea bulges outward into a cone shape. According to the Cornea Research Foundation of America, keratoconus affects 54.5 per 100,000 people. A person with keratoconus may experience a number of vision related issues including but not limited to:
- Blurry or Cloudy Vision
- Light Sensitivity
- Double Vision
What Does AvaGen Genetic Testing Screen for Exactly?
AvaGen Genetic Testing looks at over 75 genes and 2,000 variants. It is designed to put the risk of keratoconus and other corneal disorders into perspective based on actual data. One of the best parts about this type of testing is that It’s personalized which means that it focuses on your unique genetics.
Ortho-K lenses (short for orthokeratology) lenses are special gas-permeable lenses designed to reshape the cornea. The patient wears the lenses overnight and when they remove them in the morning, they will be able to enjoy clear vision throughout the day without using glasses or daytime contact lenses.
Ortho-K lenses can correct a variety of eye conditions including astigmatism, myopia, and hyperopia. Here are seven things you may not have known about corneal reshaping and Ortho-K lenses.
Switching from glasses to scleral contact lenses can take some time and adjustment. Scleral lenses are larger than traditional contact lenses and are designed to correct more severe vision problems, such as keratoconus and severe dry eye. Unlike traditional contact lenses, scleral lenses are filled with a solution before being placed on the eye, which can take some getting used to.
It's not uncommon for it to take a few weeks to adjust to scleral lenses, as the larger size and filling solution can feel foreign to the eye at first. The eye doctor will provide instructions on how to properly insert, remove, and care for the lenses, as well as how to monitor for any potential complications.