Your child leads an active life, and myopia, or nearsightedness, can make your child’s favorite activities–playing sports, spending time with their friends, or even studying for school–turn into a big struggle when they have problems with their distance vision. Fort Worth Eye Center is extremely excited to be one of the first optometry offices in the DFW metroplex to offer this innovative new contact lens approach to slow the progression of myopia (nearsightedness) in children. Start managing your child’s myopia with a comprehensive approach built around MiSight® 1 day contact lenses, the first and only FDA-approved soft contact lens proven to slow the progression of myopia in children age 8-12 at the initiation of treatment.
Myopia, also known as nearsightedness, is the inability to see objects clearly at a distance. This is due to your eye being longer than average. When your eyeball becomes too long, the light that enters your eye doesn’t allow things to focus correctly. In recent years, the percentage of nearsighted children has risen dramatically.
High myopia, defined by > -6.00D, can lead to a plethora of visual and ocular complications later in life. Long-term risks of children with high myopia are 5x the risk of early cataracts, 14x the risk of glaucoma, 22x the risk of retinal detachments, and 41x the risk of maculopathy. If you are concerned with any of these, schedule an exam today for your child.
Slowing the progression of myopia in children is important due to the longer-term implications of the condition. In the short-term, myopia can have an impact on your child’s ability to perform at school, play sports, or participate in other activities. However, in the long-term, children whose myopia has been allowed to progress are at an increased risk for vision-threatening eye conditions such as retinal detachment, glaucoma, early cataracts, and myopic macular degeneration – a leading cause of blindness. Thankfully, there are a number of treatment options for slowing the progression of myopia in your child including:
Environmental factors affect our vision. Encouraging outdoor activities to increase your child’s outdoor time promotes healthy eye growth. It can also slow the progression of myopia and reduce the chance of onset!
As the use of digital devices by younger children in the United States continues to climb, so does the prevalence of myopia in our young patients. While this might seem difficult, decreasing your child’s screen time is an effective way to decrease childhood myopia. Utilizing the 20-20-20 rule (take a 20-second break to view something 20 feet away every 20 minutes) can also help.
Treatment for myopia progression is also available – including effective tools like the MiSight® contact lenses, ortho-k, and atropine eyedrops.
We understand you may have many questions when it comes to your child’s vision. We’ve created a quick list of the most frequently asked questions we receive about MiSight® and myopia for you. If we didn’t answer your question or if you’re looking for additional information, please contact our team!
MiSight® 1 day is a soft contact lens that uses ActivControlTM Technology to slow the elongation of the eyes. ActivControlTM Technology can simultaneously correct your child’s vision today while training their eyes to resist growing longer.
MiSight are daily disposable lenses, which is the safest type of contact lens with the lowest incidence of adverse events and lowest infection risk (statistically around 2 in 10,000 wearers, per year).
No cleaning or disinfection products are required as used lenses are discarded and replaced daily. While maintaining good hygiene practices is still important, it is less critical than with Ortho K.
MiSight is FDA approved for prescriptions up to -8.00D. with low amounts of astigmatism.