LEARN MORE

What Is Myopia?

Myopia is a condition where light is focused in front of the retina rather than directly on it. This is the most common refractive error among children and young adults. Most patients with this condition wear eyeglasses or contacts to correct their vision. To visualize how your child sees the world, Myopia, also called nearsightedness, is the inability to see things clearly when viewing in the distance. Myopia develops when the length of the eyeball progressively becomes longer from front to back, which causes light to.

How Prevalent Is Myopia?

Myopia, now considered a pandemic, is becoming increasingly prevalent around the world, with a recent study showing that close to 30% of the world’s population is currently myopic.

It is estimated that by 2050, close to 50% of the global population will be myopic with nearly 1/5th at risk for blindness. That means, out of 10 billion individuals, 5 billion of them will have myopia and 1 billion will be blind regardless of age!

Myopia rates have shot up in the last 20 years. In China, between 10-20 % of elementary students are myopic. This number increases to 50% for high school students, and by the time they reach college, 90% of them are nearsighted. Of these individuals, 10% to 20% have sight-threatening pathologic myopia.

With Myopia Control Therapy, you have the control in protecting your children from landing on the wrong side of this statistic. The goal of this therapy is to slow or even stop the progression of nearsightedness.

LEARN MORE

Causes Of Increased Myopia

Optometrists have been noticing an exponential growth of progressive myopia cases in children and young adults up to age of 30. There are many contributing factors: long period's of non-stop reading or digital device usage, lack of outdoor activities and sun exposure, parental history of myopia, and many others. While glasses and contact lenses compensate for a child’s blurry distance vision, they can not stop your child’s vision from continuing to deteriorate. As children grow, myopia progression can occur pretty quick. Majority of time, Dr. Bhat recommends these high risk children to be seen every 6 months in order to quantify the rate of progression. Once progression is proven, the earlier the therapy is started, the better the long term outcome!

THE DANGERS OF MYOPIA

Studies show there is more to worry about with myopic eyes than ever before. Scientific studies have proven that myopia rapidly progresses, those individuals have significantly increased long-term risks for serious eye conditions. These risks include Retinal Detachment, Myopic Maculopathy, Macular Degeneration, Glaucoma and Cataracts. One study concluded that more than 50 percent of retinal detachments "not related to trauma" are associated with myopia. Lets quantify an individual's risk:

• Mild myopic eyes (-0.25 to -3.00) have a four-fold increase in the risk of retinal detachment.
• Moderate myopic eyes (>-3.25) have a ten-fold increase in the risk of retinal detachment.
• Severely myopic eyes (>-6.00) have 20 to 80 times higher risk than a non-myopic individual!

BEWARE: In our experience, children are afraid to complain about vision to their parents due to fear of getting in trouble and risk of having electronic devices taken away from them.

LEARN MORE

Evidence links Myopia to Ocular Disease

Over the last ten years, highly effective means to slow down and even halt the progression of myopia without resorting to any kind of surgical intervention have changed many lives. Optometrist specializing in Myopia Control use the latest methods and are able to decrease the progression by an average of 50% or more. This significantly mitigates the long term risk to the child of developing serious eye conditions later on in life. The management options include the use of OrthoKeratology Lenses, Atropine Eye Drops, and Myopia Control Contact Lenses.

MYOPIA CONTROL CONTACT LENSES

Dr. Bhat is Union County's FIRST certified provider in CooperVision's Brilliant Futures Myopia Management Program.

The MiSight 1 Day soft contact lenses, the only FDA approved for myopia control, are the most comfortable option when considering wearable myopic control devices. These lenses are inserted in the mornings and thrown away before bedtime. These lenses reduce the rate of myopia progression in children.

ORTHOKERATOLOGY

OrthoKeratology Lenses is one of the latest, most universally effective methods for controlling myopia. It works by having the child sleep with a rigid gas permeable lens at night, which gently reshapes or molds the cornea to a shape conducive to normal visual acuity. The child removes the lens in the morning and the reshaped cornea provides clear vision throughout the day without the usage of any additional glasses or contacts. To learn more click here.

ATROPINE EYE DROPS

Atropine drops are a pharmaceutical solution that stimulates pupil dilation. The use of atropine to treat pediatric myopia dates back over 150 years. In extremely low doses, the progression of myopia slows down by about 50%, without any dramatic side effects. This is line of therapy, since the drops may burn or sting, the child may squeeze all of the medication out resulting in lower chances of actually controlling the condition.

Other options such as bifocal or progressive lenses exist as possible management options but the chances of success are less at 25%, which is not acceptable to our office standards!

​​SLOW DOWN MYOPIA PROGRESSION

Start Being Proactive Today

Four Habits To ​​Slow Down Myopia Progression

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 initiation of treatment. 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. Over the course of a 3 year study of 135 children, those wearing MiSight 1Day contact lenses experienced a 59% reduction in the increase of nearsightedness compared to children wearing conventional daily disposable lenses. Many children wearing MiSight 1 Day lenses 41% of those participating in the study experienced no change at all in their prescription over the course of the 3 year study.

ALL-INCLUSIVE PACKAGE

Here at Union Family Eye Associates, teaming up with The Brilliant Futures™ Myopia Management Program, we have curated a package that helps kids take control of myopia.

The Myopia Control Package includes:

• Patient Starter Kit: Welcome Letter, Backpack, Eye Care Bag, Compact Mirror, Insertion Instructions
• Annual supply of MiSight® 1 day daily disposable lenses
• Free shipping and free returns if prescription changes is needed
• Future office visits outlined for the entire year
• Access to online support tools
• Access to The MiSight App: program details and appointment reminders
• Special discount for backup pair of glasses