Myopia Control

Take a Proactive Approach to Your Child’s Nearsightedness

Myopia, or nearsightedness has grown increasingly common over recent years. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 33% of the world suffers from myopia, with that number predicted to spike to 55% by the year 2050.

Myopia typically develops during childhood and grows progressively more severe as the child matures before stabilizing during the later teen years. Although myopia can be corrected with glasses or contact lenses, children with myopia can actually slow their myopia progression with myopia control strategies, preventing the need for significantly heavier prescriptions in adulthood.

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What is Myopia Control?

Myopia control is a treatment process designed to mitigate the progression of myopia.

In an eye with no prescription, the cornea and lens bend light so it focuses directly onto the retina at the back of the eye. In a myopic eye, however, the eyeball is too long or the refractive elements are too steep. As a result, the light focuses at a point just in front of the retina, causing distant objects to appear blurry.

As children get older, their eyes continue to grow longer, which causes light to focus further and further from the retina, making their distance vision progressively worse.

Myopia control slows the growth of the eye so that, while a child’s myopia may still progress, it will not get nearly as severe as it would have without treatment.

Our Methods of Myopia Control

Ortho-K Contact Lenses

Ortho-k contacts are rigid gas-permeable lenses designed to be worn exclusively at night-time. As your child sleeps, their corneas are moulded, based on the shape of the contact lenses. In the morning, they remove their contacts, but their corneas maintain their new shape, which refracts light onto the retina. As a result, your child enjoys clear vision without contact lenses or glasses during the day.

MiSight Contact Lenses

MiSight contact lenses are daily disposable single vision contact lenses specifically designed for children with myopia. These lenses correct your child’s distance vision while also implementing a principle called myopic defocus to slow the progression of myopia.

Studies indicate that peripheral vision is a major factor in eye growth. Scientists now believe that children with myopia also experience something called peripheral hyperopia, which means light in their peripheral vision focuses at a point behind their retina. The eye tries to grow longer to accommodate this, but in the process, makes their myopia worse.

MiSight contacts refract light in your child’s periphery so it focuses in front of the retina so the eye no longer tries to grow longer.

Multifocal Contact Lenses

Multifocal contact lenses offer different corrective powers in different areas of the lens to correct distance and near. By providing several different prescriptions in a single lens, these contacts ensure your child can see clearly at all distances without contributing to potential eye strain and by creating that peripheral vision blur to help stunt eye elongation.