Myopia Control – Including MiSight Contact Lenses
Myopia Control Overview
Myopia – short sight – occurs when the eye is longer than the focusing power of its lens, so distant objects appear blurred. Myopia is a normal condition, affecting around 35% of adults in Western Europe and in adults is generally stable and easy to correct with spectacles.
Children’s eyes are still growing as they develop through their formative years and into young adulthood – children who have myopia from a young age can suffer from progressive myopia or juvenile stress myopia where their short sight rapidly worsens as their eye continues to grow.
Worsening short sight means that a child will have to wear stronger glasses in adulthood, they will have worse vision when they remove their glasses and it can also lead to long term eye health issues – glaucoma, cataracts and retinal detachments are more common in people with severe short sight.
Myopia Control is the use by optometrists of different techniques to try and slow or even stop this worsening short sight in children. Progressive myopia is detected by optometrists over the course of routine, regular eye examinations. At Airedale Opticians we allow more time for our children’s appointments, giving our optometrists a better chance to identify and monitor your child’s short sight over time – read more about our children’s eye examinations.
Myopia Control with MiSight Lenses
MiSight Contact Lenses are a pioneering new technology launched in 2018 after more than three years of trials and studies. They contain specially formulated rings of power that the wearer does not notice, but that change the way light falls onto the retina and slows the worsening of the short sight. In a 3 year study, patients wearing the lenses showed 59% less worsening in their short sight than a control group.
MiSight lenses are now being launched in the UK and Airedale Opticians is privileged to be one of the pre-launch practices. For more information and to book an appointment, contact us today.
Alternative Myopia Control Solutions
The Eyedream Ortho-K contact lenses are an alternative style of contact lens – worn overnight, they provide clear vision without lenses or spectacles during the day. Although not originally designed for Myopia Control, studies have found that they have positive long term effects in reducing Myopic progression. Read more on our Ortho-K lens page.
For children who are too young or do not want to wear contact lenses, myopia control can also be achieved in spectacles by using bifocal or varifocal lenses for children. Specially fitted for children’s eyes, these lenses can help alleviate some of the pressure on the eye that may cause the increased short sight.
Our optometrists and dispensing opticians are specially trained to advise on and fit these lenses.