Did you know that there is a treatment using ophthalmic lenses and/or contact lenses that controls the progression of childhood myopia? Do you know why they are so important?

The increase in the prevalence of myopia is very alarming globally and, according to studies (1), there are parts of the world where 70%-80% of adults are short-sighted and around 20% of children are short-sighted at more than -6 D.
High myopia can result in the development of complications that can lead to blindness, such as Retinal Degeneration and Glaucoma.

More and more children are developing myopia at a younger age. The earlier a child develops myopia, the more it will develop and the taller it will become.
Studies indicate that an increase in myopia is related to an increase in the axial length of the eye  when the eye grows, it grows lengthways, and the shape is more like an "acorn" than a "perfect ball").

The ideal would be to have a myopia control treatment that is as minimally invasive as possible, given that the paediatric population is such a sensitive group, and that simultaneously corrects existing myopia.
To this end, a treatment with the latest ophthalmic lenses has emerged. They have a design that allows the centre of the lens to compensate for existing dioptres, and the periphery to impose the so-called "myopic defocus", in order to send information to the cells to inhibit the increase in the axial length of the eye, thus inhibiting the increase in myopia.

Recent studies (2) point to a myopia-controlling effect, slowing down its progression in children who wore this type of lens when compared to children who wore "normal" monofocal lenses, which only compensate for visual impairment.

At the moment, for cases that warrant it, we have a way of fluctuating between the use of ophthalmic lenses and daily disposable contact lenses (which have emerged as an option for myopia control before ophthalmic lenses), for a more complete treatment that covers all day-to-day needs without interruptions.

Cristiana Cruz e Pina
Optometrist

(1) Lam CSY, et al.; Defocus Inocrporeted Multiple Segments (DIMS) spetacle lenses slow myopia progression: a 2-year randomised clinical trial; Br J Ophthalmol 2019.
(2) Jinhua Bao, Yingying Huang , Xue Li, Adeline Yang, Fengchao Zhou, Junqian Wu, Chu Wang, Yuhao Li, Ee Woon Lim, Daniel P Spiegel, Björn Drobe, Hao Chen (1); Spectacle Lenses With Aspherical Lenslets for Myopia Control vs Single-Vision Spectacle LensesA Randomized Clinical Trial ; JAMA Ophthalmol. 2022 Mar 31 .