Myopia or nearsightedness is when the eye grows too long, causing distant objects to appear blurry. It is estimated that by 2050, half of the world’s population will be myopic. In the United States, the prevalence of myopia has more than doubled in the last 50 years and the World Health Organization has declared myopia as a serious public health concern. While conventional glasses and contact lenses can correct vision, neither slows or stops progression.

Progression is concerning in children as excessively fast eye growth often occurs during their developing years and results in irreversible weakening to structures within the eye. Each diopter or step of increase in myopia translates to a higher lifetime risk of vision loss from eye health complications that include retinal detachment, cataract, glaucoma and myopic macular degeneration. This risk is exponentially greater once high myopia is reached (> -5.00 D) and is most likely to occur in kids who developed myopia at a young age, have one or both parents who are also myopic or spend more time doing near tasks versus going outside.

Myopia management, also known as myopia control, is a tailored treatment program designed to intervene in this process and slow down your child’s rate of progression by using specialty contact lenses and/or prescription eye drops. Correcting your child’s vision is simply not enough. We want to do what we can to prevent their vision from worsening and most importantly, protect their future eye health!