What is EYEGYM Myopia Care?

EYEGYM Myopia Care is a specific program at Waverley Eye Care Centre in Winnipeg which focuses on reducing the progression of myopia – also known as myopia management.   The Winnipeg optometrists Dr Nelson and Dr. Friesen have tailored a specific program that helps ensure your child sees well but also helps prevent their vision from increasing.   For more information about EYEGYM Myopia Care start with a routine eye exam at Waverley Eye Care Centre in Winnipeg.

What is Myopia

Myopia is also known as nearsightedness and causes distant objects to appear blurred while nearby objects remain clear.   Myopia occurs when the eye grows too long causing light to focus infront of the retina instead of  directly on it.

Myopia often develops during childhood during the rapid growth of the body and eye.   Two important considerations for parents with myopic children are:

  1. Make sure your child has eyeglasses or contact lenses to allow them to see clearly.
  2. Consider and impliment options to slow down the progression of myopia – this is called Myopia Management or Myopia Control.

Contact Waverley Eye Care Centre and book an eye exam for your child and ask us about Myopia management options to help slow down myopia progression.

What is Myopia Management?

The term myopia management is often used synonymously with myopia control but they both refer to the prescribing of an intervention to slow down the progression of myopia.  Most eye doctors currently prefer to use the term myopia management and is more accurately represents that fact that we can’t stop or reverse myopia but we can help slow down the progression of it.

Myopia management refers to the decision to implement a strategy to slow down the progression of myopia in a child.   The initial stage of myopia management needs to occur as soon as there is evidence of myopia and ideally in the pre-myopia stage.

So are 4 things you should expect from your myopia management eye doctor:

  1. Help you identity risk factors for myopia and high myopia….and one of the key ones I find is knowing the axial length of your eye and how this is changing.
  2. Providing information, advice and recommendations to children and parents about myopia management.
  3. Prescribing interventions like specific spectacle lenses, contact lenses and or eye drops to slow the progression of myopia and reduce the risk for developing high myopia
  4. Being proactive.

Why Myopia Management is important?

Treating myopia with glasses and contact lenses is important for children to ensure they are seeing things clearly in the distance.   More importantly, efforts to reduce the progression of myopia – known as myopia management – can reduce the chance of your child developing eye diseases like glaucoma, retinal detachments and myopic maculopathy as adults.   Someone with high myopia has a larger eyeball than average which means the retina and eye tissues are stretched which puts individuals at a much higher risk for impaired vision as an adult.  Intervention by parents during the preteen and teen years to reduce the level of myopia can help reduce these risks.

Myopia Risks

There are a number of risk factors that can indicate or perhaps contribute to the develpment of myopia in children.  If your child has some of these risk factors you may want to take proactive measures to reduce thier risk for developing myopia

FAMILY HISTORY OF MYOPIA

MYOPIA UNDER THE AGE OF 8 YEARS OLD

GREATER THAN 0.50D CHANGE PER YEAR

TIME OUTDOORS LESS THAN 1 HOUR/DAY

SCREEN TIME GREATER THAN 3 HOURS/DAY

ESOPHORIA

EYE LONGER THAN AVERAGE (AXIAL LENGTH)

Myopia Management Options

There are 3 main options for controlling the progression of myopia.

  1. Myopia Management Spectacle Lenses
  2. Myopia Management Contact Lenses
  3. Myopia Management Eye Drops

You could choose any or all of these options for your child.

Spectacle lenses for Myopia Management

If your child has myopia you they be prescribed eyeglasses by our optometrists at Waverley Eye Care Centre.   The prescription lenses that your child is prescribed for nearsightedness will do two things:

  1.  Focus images on the retina so that your child can see things clearly in the distance.
  2.  Include specific technology that will slow down the growth of they eye (axial length), resulting in the slow of myopia progression.

For more details on specific spectalce lenses for myopia click here.

Contact Lenses for Myopia Management

There are also conntact lens options that can help slow the progression of myopia.  MiSight daily disposable soft contact lenses are a great FDA approved option to slow myopia.

MiSight contact lenses correct nearsightedness and slow the progression of myopia in children (aged 8-12 at the initiation of treatment) by 59% on average, utilizing special ActivControl®Technology.

Eye Drops for Myopia Management

Atropine is a commonly used eye drop that has been used for decades and many studies have shown it to be effective in slowing the growth of the eye and being effective in slowing down myopia progression.   Resent studies have found that low doses of atropine are effective in slowing myopoia progression in children.   Drops are used once each day.