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Myopia Control
Following children’s frequent engagement with digital devices nowadays, childhood myopia has become an epidemic and is progressing fast as they grow. Recent studies show that the earlier the onset of myopia, the higher the possibility of a child becomes highly myopic a.k.a. “short-sighted”. Now you can imagine this! If this scenario continues, almost 50% of the world population will become myopic with one-third being highly myopic by year 2050. This generated figure is not a scarecrow effect, but is generated based on a predicted analysis.
Isn’t high myopia only about having a pair of thick glasses?
Sadly, no. In fact, there are several consequences that you don’t see coming with this eye condition. One of the causes of myopia progression is the elongation of eyeball throughout children’s development; stretching of the retina increases the risk of sight-threatening eye conditions such as retinal detachment and glaucoma. Having one of these conditions can hinder life in numerous ways and make daily activities more challenging.
“I’m not letting my children to wear glasses as they make the short-sightedness increase over the years!” Does this sound familiar to you?
This often brings to a question, “Does not–wearing–glasses when you’re short-sighted help to reduce the eye power over the years?”
Glasses are visual aids that help to improve the vision, as long as the prescription you are wearing is appropriate and precise. Having blur vision due to uncorrected refractive powers such as myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism in contrary, triggers the increase in eye power due to unnecessary visual stress and eye strain. Whether you need a prescription glasses or not, it is always recommended to get advice from the optometrist about putting them on throughout the day or occasionally, this may vary depending on individual’s condition and needs.
Controlling Myopia Progression with Glasses
Children with myopia tend to show regular progression or worsening of their vision over time. However, there are ways to slow down this worsening, called myopia control. Typically, when a child first becomes myopic, their first vision correction will be spectacles (glasses).
Here are several clinically proven myopia control lenses in the market:
Bifocal Design : In bifocal design, the distance (upper) portion will be the full power to correct the myopia, while the near (lower) portion is incorporated with 3 base-in prism with reduced power for muscle relaxation during near-work.
This design with a visible division line on the lens is clinically proven to have effectiveness of up to 51% in managing myopia progression. The division line on the lens is able to ensure parents or guardians to monitor whether the child is using the lens the right way to enhance the effectiveness.
Progressive Addition Design : Progressive addition design offers a gradual reduction in power towards the bottom of the lens when a child is viewing from far to near, intended for muscle relaxation at near.
The progressive addition lens gives an effectiveness of around 35% in controlling myopia progression. In contrary to bifocal design, such lens looks like a normal single vision lens without the division line for better appearance, therefore this requires compliance from the child – a proper viewing posture and eye position to view through the right portion of the lens.
Peripheral Defocus : The lens comprises a central optical zone for correcting myopia, along with multiple defocus segments of +3.50DS evenly surrounding the central zone or gradual defocus extending to the lens periphery, in order to control myopia progression.
This mechanism provides clear vision at the centre, while myopic defocus simultaneously along the periphery view, in approach to slow down the eyeball elongation. The effectiveness in managing myopia progression among children is up to 60%, which is considerably high.
Progressive Addition Lenses (PAL)
In order to preserve more of your children’s eyesight, it is a crucial step to empower them in myopia control before the vision stabilizes around the age of 18 to 20. It is our responsibility as adults to ensure that the younger generation having a better vision, wearing a pair of thinner glasses and are exposed to lower risk of severe eye conditions!
“Should I get the lens with the highest effectiveness for my child?”
“How should I decide the best lens for my loved little one?”
Generally, there are various factors to consider during the selection of myopia control lenses as it can depend on your child’s level of myopia, eye muscle coordination, age and many more! If you are looking for an option to manage your child’s myopia successfully, do look out for us at Eye & Glasses Optometrist! Here, we have comprehensive eye assessment for your little one and together, we can have a discussion in depth on selecting the best myopia control approach to preserve his/her precious vision!