Myopia Management in New Westminster

At EyeHaus, we love seeing children thrive and flourish as they laugh, play, and learn. However, vision problems, such as myopia (nearsightedness), can disrupt their ability to enjoy life's pleasures and cause behavioural changes. Myopia can hinder your child's performance in school, sports, and other recreational activities.

What is myopia?

Myopia, more commonly know is nearsightedness or shortsightedness, is when objects are blurry at a distance. This is due to the eyeball being too long, so when light travels into the eye, it does not focus on the retina, but falls short in front of the retina. 

Left untreated, children may experience vision problems that could have a lasting effect or become permanent. High myopia is associated with many ocular diseases such as retinal detachments or retinal tears, glaucoma and macular degeneration.

Unfortunately, myopia is irreversible. However, once your child is an adult with stable vision, there are refractive procedures available to do away with glasses and contact lenses. 

What can be done to management myopia?

Fortunately, we can assist in managing the progression of myopia in children. Regular eye exams are the most effective way to diagnose myopia in your child. Once diagnosed, we can have multiple options to combat myopia including prescribing specialty eyeglasses, specialty contact lenses and/or medication.

BHVI provides an excellent myopia calculator that is backed up by years of research to estimate what your child's prescription may become if left untreated versus different treatment options.

https://bhvi.org/myopia-calculator-resources/

What does EyeHaus offer for myopia control treatment?

1. Myopia control spectacle lenses are a great way to control the eyes from further increase in spectacle prescription. These specialized lenses causes peripheral defocusing, which helps maintain the eyes from growing too long too fast. Myopia progression is reduced by 60%! At EyeHaus, we carry the follow lenses:

• Essilor - Stellest
• Hoya - Miyosmart

2. Another method is orthokeratology, also known as ortho-k or OK lenses. It is a specialized gas permeable lenses (hard lenses) that acts like retainers, but for the eyes. It molds the cornea, the front surface of the eyes, into a difference shape during the night. No corrective lenses are needed during the day. Again, peripheral defocus is at play here. Learn more about the fitting here.

• CooperVision - Paragon CRT
• Bausch + Lomb - BE FREE
• Art Optical - Moonlens
• Johnson & Johnson - Abiliti Overnight

3. Myopia control soft contact lenses are daily disposable contact lenses. These lenses also use peripheral defocus mechanism for treatment.

• Johnson & Johnson - Abiliti 1 day
• Coopervision - MiSight

4. Last but not least, low dose atropine works on the level of the retinal cells and has shown to significantly slow down the progression of myopia in children. It is a nightly eyedrop and may cause some light sensitivity during the day. At EyeHaus, we encourage parents to add low dose atropine therapy to any of the lens treatment to get maximum effect. 

Start taking back control of your child's vision and watch them excel in life! For more information, please book an eye exam or a myopia control consult with us.