Myopia, also called near-sightedness, is an eye condition that causes objects far away from you to appear blurry. It often appears and worsens during childhood as the visual system matures. Myopia can often be corrected with eyeglasses or contact lenses, but surgery is also an option.
Our team here at Smithfield Eye & Optical offers numerous corrective methods for myopia, and we are ready to help patients of any age. Come see us to start controlling myopia in your child’s vision. Let us help your little one succeed with better vision.
Myopia is usually found in children and generally stabilizes around age 20. It is never too early or too late to start taking myopia control seriously. And don’t wait for your child to tell you that something is wrong. Stay proactive with regular eye exams that let us monitor myopia in your child’s vision each year.
At Smithfield Eye & Optical, we’ll work hard to prevent myopia from reducing your child’s quality of life. Come see why all kinds of people in Rhode Island trust us to control myopia’s effects.
Myopia is a vision problem classified as a refractive error. The eyes of a person with myopia have a focal point that’s not in the retina. Specifically, images are projected before the retina.
This usually happens because the eye is too long or the cornea is too curved. Myopia doesn’t affect your sight for objects that are up close but makes faraway objects appear blurry.
Common symptoms of myopia include:
Myopia is commonly said to have 2 degrees. These degrees are based on the amount of correction necessary to make light focus on the retina, which is measured in diopters. Low Myopia describes a refractive error between 0.5 and 6 diopters. High Myopia applies to refractive errors of 6 diopters and up.
As light comes in through the cornea, the rays are bent through the pupils. The light then passes through the iris, a structure that controls the amount of light that reaches your eye’s lens. In a normal eye, the lens’s focal point is in the retina. Myopia causes incorrect focusing on the retina because of the abnormal shape of the eye. This communicates blurry images to your brain.
Myopia is a progressive disease, so controlling myopia means correcting it and slowing down its progress. The condition is first found in children from age 8 to 12 and may worsen as they age and their bodies develop.
There are several methods for controlling myopia in young people, which may include having them wear eyeglasses. Smithfield Eye & Optical offers several methods of controlling myopia in children.
Topical atropine is a trusted method for slowing down myopia progression in children. Atropine in small quantities over a set period can greatly control your child’s myopia. Atropine drops dilate the pupil and studies have shown they can slow myopia in children.
Ortho-K, or orthokeratology, is a type of contact lens that children may wear overnight. These lenses change the shape of the child’s cornea while they’re asleep, and temporarily make light rays reach the correct spot on the retina throughout the following day.
These soft lenses not only help correct the refractive errors caused by myopia but attempt to focus light to the correct place on the retina. Concentric rings in the lens redirect light and have been shown to reduce myopia progression.
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Smithfield Eye & Optical
