Does your own or your child's prescription continue to increase year after year? Their are proven treatments we can utilize to slow this down. Think of this concept of "Myopia Control" as braces for your eyes. Just like braces straighten the teeth to align and mature correctly, myopia control helps the eyes mature correctly to improve long term vision and eye health. Over the last 20+ years we have seen a significant increase in kids that are nearsighted (Myopia). Due to this, a lot of new research and treatment options have come out to address this concern.
Why? Myopia control does not reverse the need for glasses or contact lenses, but it can significantly reduce the rate of progression. The common question we get from parents is "Why worry about this if my kid will still need glasses or contact lenses?" This is a completely reasonable question. The following are a couple of the reasons myopia control should be considered.
Vision... Have you ever wondered what the "prescription number" of your glasses or contacts means? If you are nearsighted (myopia) then your prescription is a minus number and you don't see well in the distance without glasses or contact lenses. The following are some examples...
-1.00 correlates to you being able to see clearly up to 1 meter away. This means you need glasses for many things but are still able to get up at night and find your way down the hall to the bathroom and function fairly well without glasses.
-5.00 correlates to you being able to see clearly up to 25 centimeters away. This means you need glasses for most everything and could possibly still get up at night and bump your way down the hall to the bathroom.
-10.00 correlates to you being able to see clearly up to 10 centimeters away. At this point, you are completely reliant on glasses for every part of your life. Navigating your way anywhere without your glasses on could be hazardous:)
Eye Health... The higher that minus number goes, the longer the eye is. As the eye elongates, it creates tension and stretching on the retina. The retina is the thin highly sensitive layer of tissue lining the back interior of the eyeball which is critical for vision. With increased tension and stretching on the retina, there is a higher chance of something called a retinal tear or detachment occurring. This can severely impact vision. Retinal tears and detachments are relatively rare, but they are much more common in people that have a high minus prescription. Myopia control can help prevent the likelihood of this happening.
Treatment Options
Our office provides multiple treatment options to address this. These treatment options generally work off of a proven optical principle called "peripheral myopic defocus." If you would like more information about this we are happy to discuss it with you.
MiSight soft contact lenses are a daily disposable contact lens that is FDA approved for Myopia control. More information can be found at the Misight webpage.
OrthoK rigid contact lenses are contact lens designed to be worn overnight and removed in the morning. We fit Paragon CRT ortho K lenses. While you sleep, the lenses reshape your eye in a painless, reversible way that gives you clear vision throughout the day without contact lenses or glasses! The optics of how this works also provides proven myopia control. For more information about CRT, please visit www.crtvision.com.
Essilor Stellist spectacle lenses are a brand new approved treatment now available in the US. Their will be more to come on this treatment option as we learn more!
The following is a video that explains and give a visual for some of the things discussed here
If you would like to further discuss or consider myopia control treatments for you or your child, give our Brigham City Eye and Vision Care office a call today at (435) 723-2144 to schedule an appointment.