Myopia is one of the leading causes of visual impairment, and it’s been on the rise for decades. If your child is showing signs of myopia, it’s important to schedule a comprehensive eye exam as soon as possible to have the best chance at preserving their eyesight into their teens and adulthood.
Fortunately, if you or your child is diagnosed with myopia, there are a wide variety of myopia control options available. In fact, the sheer number of options can make it complicated for people to research them all, which is why we’ve created this guide.
The best options for myopia control are:
- Atropine 0.05%
- Dual-focus soft contact lenses
- Orthokeratology
- DIMS lenses
- H.A.L.T. lenses
- Diffusion Optics Technology
Why Myopia Control Is Important
There are a variety of reasons that it’s important to diagnose and control myopia as early as possible. First, myopia gets worse over time, meaning that untreated myopia is more likely to both have more negative impacts on vision and cause complications. The Brien Holden Vision Institute has a Myopia Calculator that shows the effects of progressing myopia on a child’s vision, so that parents can better understand their child’s situation..
Second, myopia can have major impacts on how well children perform in school. Up to 80% of a child’s learning is done through their vision. The longer their myopia goes untreated, the more likely they are to have difficulty in school, which can lead to poor grades and behavioral issues in the classroom.
Second, as myopia becomes more severe, it can increase the risk of other eye diseases. Untreated myopia can lead to myopic macular degeneration, glaucoma, retinal detachment, or cataracts. Myopia experts have even said that there’s “no safe level of myopia”—that is, there’s no level of myopia that’s minor enough to not have to worry about it.
Options for Myopia Control
It can be difficult to choose a single “best” option for myopia control, for two different reasons. First, multiple methods can be equally effective, instead of one standing out above all the others. That makes it much harder to choose a single “best” option.
Second, your personal circumstances and lifestyle will have an impact on which myopia control option is the best for you or your child. Some of the best myopia control options are better suited to children, while others are better suited to adults. You might have to choose whether you’d rather wear glasses or contacts, and whether you’d rather wear them during the day or at night.
Regardless of your situation, all of the options in this post slow the progression of myopia by at least 50%, which is the current best outcome for myopia control.
Atropine 0.05%
Atropine is a topical drug that dilates the pupils and makes the eye focus less intensely. When used in children, and in combination with other treatments, a 0.05% concentration of atropine has been shown to slow the progress of myopia.
Dual-Focus Soft Contact Lenses
Dual-focus soft contact lenses work similarly to bifocal glasses, allowing the eye to focus differently at different distances, but are much more effective in treating myopia than bifocal lenses.
Orthokeratology (Ortho-K)
Orthokeratology involves wearing hard contact lenses to temporarily reshape the cornea. These lenses are worn at night while you sleep and can be removed during the day, giving you improved vision without the need to wear glasses or contacts all day. However, the benefits of ortho-k will reverse over time if you stop wearing the hard contacts at night.
DIMS Lenses, H.A.L.T. Lenses, & Diffusion Optics Technology
These three lenses use new technologies to create special eyeglass lenses that change the way light focuses to different degrees across different parts of the eye, instead of altering light in the same way across the entire eye. The differences in focusing in specific parts of the eye helps the eye to overcome myopia and focus correctly.
DIMS lenses (short for Defocus Incorporated Multiple Segments) and H.A.L.T lenses (short for Highly Aspherical Lenslet Target) both use a technology called lenslets to create the differences in focus across different parts of the eye. Lenslets are miniature lenses placed on the surface of the glasses that further change the way light focuses when it passes through them.
Diffusion Optics Technology uses an entirely different method to correct myopia. It’s thought that imbalances in light reception lead to the changes in eye shape that cause myopia. Rather than refocusing light in a different manner, Diffusion Optics Technology lenses use “diffusers” made of tiny dots to normalize the reception of light by certain cones (a type of photoreceptor).
Moving Forward With Myopia Control
Although the prevalence of myopia has been rising in recent decades, the number and effectiveness of treatments has also been rising. If you or your child has been diagnosed with myopia, there are more and more effective options than ever to control it, and Fontana Optometric Group is here to help. For more information, or to schedule a comprehensive eye exam, book an appointment with us today!
