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Myopia Control

Our Optometrists Kjell Nolke and Órla Reade are delighted to include myopia control in our scope of practice. Having completed the Brian Holden myopia management course as well as Coopervision Misight accreditation, we have been fitting Misight lenses since 2018. 

In addition we have been fitting Myosmart spectacle lenses since 2020 with equal success – meaning we can now offer our young myopic patients the choice of contact lenses, spectacles or a combination of both. 

 

Our young patients range in ages from 8 to 16 and both they and their parents have been both delighted and amazed by the concept that we can now actively work on reducing the progression of the child’s myopia. Prior to myopia control there was always the helpless feeling of coming in to the optician, hearing that the prescription was increasing and that there was nothing that could be done about it.

Myopia control with Coopervision Misight lenses has proven to be a wonderful addition to our scope of practice.

The only difficult part of it for us as practitioners is explaining this new technology to parents. We hope that the following resources help to inform and answer most of your questions. Of course we will be delighted to talk to you and your child about your individual circumstances and ensure that your experience is both safe and hopefully reduces your risks of myopic progression.

MYOPIA / SHORT SIGHTED / NEAR SIGHTED… WHAT IS IT ANYWAY?

 

MYOPIA – is a condition of the eye – when the eye grows too fast and becomes too big, specifically too long from front to back. Images that should focus on the retina at the back of the eye, instead focus in front of it causing distant objects to be out of focus and blurred distance vision.

Simply put:     your eye grows too big
and objects far away appear blurred.

Meaning:        children’s eyes can grow too fast and too big causing blurred distance vision / can’t see the board in school and blur sport and social activities.


Here are some facts:

  • MYOPIA has always been a thing humans have suffered from. First recorded in 350 B.C. by none other than Aristotle!
  • Go back only … say 200 years ago … remember back then… when we were all out and about… throwing sticks at animals far away. Doing very little reading.
  • In the last 100 years we started to read more, in the last 50 years a lot more, in the last 20 years when the internet arrived – a ton more, in the last 10 years when smart phones arrived – waaay more and in the last two years since Covid 19 arrived – loads and loads more!.
  • Today our eyes are now looking at things up close an awful lot more than in the past. Our children start especially young, studying, reading and on various devices, phones, tablets, games etc. The problem is that children’s eyes are developing eyes. They grow as the child grows. Excessive time spent on near work is associated with a greater likelihood of myopia.
  • Until recently optometrists supplied the child with spectacles or contact lenses to correct the myopia, helping the child see normally again in the distance. These spectacles did not however prevent or slow the progression of the myopia. Hence the child would need to return every 6-12 months for review and we simply increased the strength of the glasses as the child became more myopic.
  • With future estimations of half the global population becoming myopic by 2050, the resources needed to provide spectacle correction and the impact on people’s lives will be significant.


The problem with myopic eyes is:

  • They need glasses to see.. sorry for the obvious one !
  • Myopia can get worse as the child grows
  • The more myopic the eye the greater the risk of myopic eye complications in later life including cataracts, macular degeneration, retinal detachments, glaucoma. Risk factors for all of these conditions increase as the size of the eye increases.
  • The world is becoming more myopic. It is estimated half the global population could be affected by short-sightedness by 2050.

 

 

What can we do about it?

 

  • Lifestyle changes  
    • More outdoor activities – spend two hours per day outdoors. Encourage your child to spend some of their day outdoors doing sport, meeting friends, going for a walk, play outside.
    • Regular Eye Examinations – early detection is key to catch myopia. The earlier we can detect it the more we can intervein and implement countermeasures.
    • Regular screen breaks. Remember the 20-20-20 rule
      every 20 mins look into the distance 20 meters away for 20 seconds.
    • Keep screens and room lighting optimal when doing near work.  

 

  • MYOPIA MANAGMENT SPECTACLE LENSES & CONTACT LENSES

     

What is the Myopia epidemic?
Myopia management vs myopia correction
Misight 1 Day lenses
Vision simulator
BOOK HERE