Myopia Control In Kids

By 2050 it is expected that about 50% of the world's population will be myopic.  Over the last 40 years, it has increased by about 25%.  Myopia is related to time spent indoors, near work and genetics.  Over time our people are spending more time indoors and on computers.  This has led to the dramatic increase.

In myopia the strength of the eye is too strong for its length.  This causes light to focus in front of the retina and makes distance vision blurry.  It can be corrected with glasses, contact lenses or refractive surgery.  It increases the risk of getting retinal detachments, glaucoma and cataracts.

New methods have been developed that slow down the progress of myopia in children.  These methods include diluted drops of atropine, contact lenses that cause peripheral defocus and orthokeratolgy.

In the diluted atropine method a drop with a concentration of atropine of 0.05% is given once a day.  Studies show this method reduces myopia progression from 50 to 60%.  The method with contact lenses that cause peripheral defocus reduces myopia progression in children by around 50%.  A brand of these contacts by CooperVision is called MiSight.  With orthokeratology (sleeping in hard contacts so no correction is worn during the day) it has been shown to slow myopia progression by about 35%