4 Excellent Treatment Options for Myopia Control
Myopia or nearsightedness is the most prevalent vision problem in the world. This refractive error of the eye makes distant objects seem blurry. In most cases, myopia begins early in life and can worsen as you grow older.
With each year, we are seeing more and more people developing myopia. Statistics show that 30% of the population is myopic. This is one of the significant reasons why people find themselves looking for our optometrist in Vaughan for myopia management.
Myopia management is critical since higher amounts of myopia can lead to an increased risk of glaucoma, cataract, myopic retinal degeneration, retinal detachment, and even blindness. The whole idea of visiting Dr. Allyson Tang Optometrist is to help you and your children have healthier eyes.
Fortunately, there’s no need for you to wait for the inevitable results of myopia. Our optometrist in Vaughan has four options that have been tested and are good for myopia control.
Without further ado, let’s see the treatment options available:
- Orthokeratology
Orthokeratology is a relatively new technology that uses specially designed gas-permeable contact lenses for myopia. They are worn throughout the night to correct nearsightedness and other vision issues temporarily.
Whenever you use them, you can say goodbye to eyeglasses or traditional contact lenses—picture ortho k contacts as dental braces used to move teeth. The ortho k lenses work by reshaping your eye’s front surface while you are asleep.
The cornea, which is a clear dome-shaped tissue that is in front of your eye, focuses light and is responsible for the eye’s ability to focus. The cornea is very flexible, which is why these lenses are able to reshape it.
When you wear them, the cornea will be flattened, and it will alter the way light is refracted as it enters your eye. The ortho k lenses are rigid and sturdy enough to shape the cornea. They are also gas-permeable to allow oxygen to pass through, so your eyes will remain healthy.
Ortho-k contacts are also recommended to correct kids’ vision. This allows children to be free of glasses or contacts during the day since their vision is not stable enough to undergo LASIK or any other vision-correcting procedures.
- Multifocal Contact Lenses
These contact lenses are designed to correct vision at all distances for patients who have refractive errors. In other words, if you have myopia or hyperopia, you can benefit from using multifocal contact lenses.
Multifocal contact lenses are also used by patients with age-related loss of near focus, known as presbyopia.
Recent studies have revealed that multifocal contact lenses for myopia can also help reduce the progression of myopia in children.
- Multifocal Eyeglasses
These eyeglasses operate under the same principle as multifocal contacts. This means that they can also help patients who have myopia, presbyopia, astigmatism, and hyperopia. Compared to traditional bifocal lenses, there are new lenses now that are specifically designed to help reduce myopia progression in children.
The multifocal glasses are more effective on children who have esophoria, a certain eye-muscle positioning.
- Atropine Eye Drops
Atropine, has been found to slow the progression of myopia. Typically, you apply the eye drop once a day to slow down myopia progression.
Atropine has been used for many years for myopia control because it has excellent short-term results. Atropine can dilate the pupil and completely relax your eye’s focusing mechanism. In other words, atropine can relieve focusing fatigue and temporarily inhibit the eyes’ ability to change focus automatically. This process is known as accommodation.
Low-dose atropine is used for myopia control. Because of the lower concentration, it minimizes side effects of blurry vision and sensitivity to light.
There are ongoing studies to investigate whether atropine combined with other treatments like multifocal eye glasses can have an additive effect and be more effective in reducing myopia progression than one treatment alone.
For any of the above treatments, contact our optometrist near you at Dr. Allyson Tang Optometrist.