Does your child wear glasses to see things at a distance? The prevalence of myopia, also known as nearsightedness, has been rising. Nowadays, doctors employ eye drops or special contact lenses to help children who are becoming more and more nearsighted year after year.
Undiagnosed myopic children may first notice blurriness when looking at things far away, but oftentimes, it's a parent or teacher who observes the child moving closer to see things or squinting at the board or tv to see better. After a diagnosis of myopia is made at the eye doctor's office, it is commonly observed that myopia tends to worsen over the years. Fortunately, at some point, usually in the late teenage or early adult years, myopia tends to stabilize.
By 2050, nearly half of the world will be myopic. Compare this to 2010, when the prevalence of myopia in the world was 28.3%.
So what is the problem? We are seeing more children becoming myopic, and research is suggesting that those who are diagnosed with myopia earlier in life tend to have more severe myopia (-5.00D or worse) as adults. Those with high myopia are at a higher risk for developing retinal detachment, glaucoma and myopic maculopathy. Therefore, intervention during this critical time, will optimize the odds against the development of these conditions.
Slowing down myopia by 1.00 diopter can reduce the likelihood of developing of myopic maculopathy by 40%.
With research showing there is supporting evidence that myopia can be slowed down, more eye care providers are becoming proactive and are providing parents options for myopia management. So what do we have so far?
1) Atropine drops: One drop in each eye is instilled each night. The child wears his/her normal eyeglass or contact lens correction during the day. Studies have looked at kids as young as 3 years old, so this is a great option for younger kids.
2) Orthokeratology: The child sleeps in lenses which have reverse geometry to flatten the central cornea and steepen the midperiphery to provide myopic defocus. The flattening of the cornea allows for no prescriptive lens use during the day. This is a great option for kids who play sports. Those who may get discomfort from wearing these hard lenses may want the option below.
3) Cooper Vision MiSight: The child wears dual focus contact lenses, which is just like regular daily disposable soft contact lenses except for the lens allows for areas of myopic defocus to slow down the elongation of the eye. This is great for those who don't want to wear glasses or hard contact lenses. This is the only FDA approved contact lens for myopia control.
Because research is suggesting that myopia progresses faster in the younger age group (8-12 years old), many eye care providers are becoming proactive and are offering options to slow down myopia to this age group. With robust research on treating young kids with specialty contact lenses and atropine, parents now have answers to the common question "What can we do about it?" when they come in the following year and are told their child's nearsightedness has gotten worse.
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