We can help manage your child's myopia
Slowing myopia progression can help prevent your child from eye conditions and more expensive glasses in later life
The best way to protect your child's eyes in the long term is to book regular eye exams with your optician. We recommend booking an exam for your child yearly - especially if they do a lot of near work (reading/phone/tablet etc) or if one of their parents is short-sighted.
Seeing your optician regularly can make sure you get tailored advice, and access to the newest technologies that can help your child in the long run. We can supply Hoya's Miyosmart lenses - proven to reduce myopia progression by up to 60%, and will offer regular checkups to ensure we are always treating your child's eyes as well as we can.
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What is Myopia?
Myopia, commonly known as short-sightedness, is the inability to see distant objects clearly. This means that things such as television and white boards at school will be difficult to see. Unfortunately, myopia tends to get worse as we grow and the younger it starts, the worse it may get overall! Myopia occurs when the eye grows too long or the focusing parts of the eye are too powerful, causing the image to focus in front of the retina rather than on it, resulting in blurred vision.
What causes Myopia?
Research suggests that a mix of genetic and environmental factors cause myopia. If one or both parents have myopia it is much more likely for a child to develop it. Ethnicity also plays a role; myopia is more common in Asia where it affects around 60-70% of people. However, it is on the increase worldwide, and environmental factors also play an important role. Spending more time on near work activities increases the likelihood of developing myopia, and spending more time outdoors seems to reduce its incidence. Poor lighting and nutritional deficiencies increase its incidence.
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Why Manage Myopia?
Acting early in the diagnosis of myopia not only helps to improve their vision now, but can help slow the progression of myopia and preserve vision and eye health for the future.
Due to the increased length of a myopic eye, the incidence of conditions such as glaucoma, myopic macular degeneration and retinal detachment increase with the level of myopia.
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Myopia management is a long term treatment plan for children and teenagers to manage and slow the growth of myopia to reduce the risk of such conditions later in life.
How can you slow the progression of Myopia?
Up until now, the only treatment options opticians could provide were conventional spectacle lenses to correct the visual symptoms of myopia, making vision clearer, and advice on behavioural changes - reducing the amount of very close work, such as on mobile phones or tablets, and increasing the time spent outside.
This has recently changed as we now have access to Hoya's Miyosmart lenses, which have been proven to slow the progression of myopia while still providing clear vision.
Act Now
The NHS feels that regular eye exams are important for children and as such, will cover the costs of an eye test once a year for under 16s, and those 18 or under in full-time education.
In terms of myopia, it is especially important to book to see our optometrist now if your child:
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is already short-sighted
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is under 16 years old
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is a student at university
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spends less than 1.5 hours outside every day
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spends more than 2 hours reading or using handheld devices (outside of school hours)
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Has one or more parents with Myopia (though even with neither parent suffering myopia it still affects 1 in 4 people)
