What is Myopia?
Myopia is blurry long-distance vision, often called ‘near-sightedness’. A person with myopia can typically see clearly up close – when reading a book or looking at a laptop screen – but words and objects look fuzzy on a whiteboard, on television, across the room, when looking outdoors or when driving. Most myopia is caused by the eye length growing too quickly in childhood. The eyes are meant to grow from birth until the early teens and then cease, but in myopia the eyes grow too much and/or continue growing into the teenage years. Once a child becomes myopic, their vision typically deteriorates every 6-12 months, requiring a stronger and stronger prescription. Most myopic children tend to stabilize by the late teens and early 20’s.
Why is myopia a concern?
Myopia is more than just blurred distance vision, but is also an ocular health condition which can lead to irreversible damage to the eye. The rate of myopia is growing across the world, increasing from 22% of the world’s population in 2000 to 33% in 2020 – half of the world’s population is expected to be myopic by 2050. Excessive eye growth raises concern because even small amounts of stretching can lead to increased likelihood of vision threatening eye diseases in later life, such as macular disease, retinal detachment, glaucoma, and cataract. This risk increases with each increase in myopia.
What causes Myopia Progression?
Genetics plays a large role in a child both becoming myopic and the progression of myopia. Additional factors such as your child’s current visual clarity and eye teaming ability can increase the risk of progression. Environmental factors such as decreased time spent outdoors and increased time performing near vision tasks (such as reading, video games, screen time, and homework) has been shown to play a large role in increased myopia.
Why Myopia Control?
Myopia Control is the term describing the treatment methods used to slow down the progression of myopia and reduce the risk of related eye disease. Our eye care physicians are professionally trained in these treatment methods and are encouraged by the results as more and more studies show the benefits, efficacy and safety of myopia control treatments.
Why haven’t I heard of myopia control before?
Just like many areas in the medical field, our knowledge about myopia and its long term effects is constantly expanding. Only in recent years have experts recognized the rapid rate of myopia progression worldwide which has triggered a large increase in clinical studies to find solutions to combat the worrisome trend. Long term studies demonstrating the safety and efficacy of myopia control treatments have led to the first FDA approval for myopia control treatment in 2019 with many more treatments within the approval process.
Treatment Options
Standard, single-focus long distance spectacles or contact lenses do not slow down the progression of childhood myopia. Instead, specific types of contact lenses and eye drops called atropine have been proven to slow myopia progression in children. The best option for your child will depend on their current prescription and other vision and eye health factors determined in their eye examination. Your eye care practitioner will discuss the options with you to determine the best option. It is important to note that no treatment can promise the ability to stop myopia progression in children, only to slow it down.
