Mountain Shadows Vision Center - Myopia Management

What is Myopia Management?

Myopia, often referred to as nearsightedness, can lead to glaucoma, macular degeneration, and retinal detachments. This disease continues rising at an alarming rate among children in the US. In response, we needed to provide a service to help young patients from getting more nearsighted, so we started offering Ortho-K lenses to help slow down myopia in children! We also offer contact lenses and glasses for people seeking more traditional methods for dealing with short-sightedness

Myopia Management At Mountain Shadow Vision Center

Here at Mountain Shadow Vision Center, we primarily use Ortho-K lenses to help children stabilize their prescriptions from getting worse at a rapid pace. For myopia control, Ortho-K (orthokeratology) utilizes painless therapeutic contact lenses that your child will wear while they sleep. They reshape the front surface of their eyes to improve vision, similar to what braces do for teeth!

When your child wears these lenses at night, the back of the lens creates a specific shape and thickness that adheres to their natural tears to create a seal. Overnight, this seal reforms the shape of the cornea. When they wake up, the cornea will have molded into the desired shape to refocus light onto their retina. This painless process gives them clear, natural vision all day long without glasses.

The process typically takes one to two weeks to be fully effective. However, patients often notice a significant difference overnight, and some recover almost immediately! Contact us today to schedule an appointment for your child’s myopia management today!

Why is Myopia Management Important?

Myopia becomes progressively worse with time. Left untreated, moderate myopia can lead to glaucoma, detached retinas, cataracts, and macular degeneration. In severe cases, the macula tears, which can lead to bleeding retinas, blindness, or loss of vision.

Risks Associated with High Myopia

Moderate Myopia:

• Glaucoma - Damaging the optic nerve in the back of your eye can cause vision loss and blindness over time. The symptoms start slowly and require a comprehensive dilated eye exam to discover.

• Detached Retinas - Flashes and floaters in vision may suggest that the retina, the thin layer at the back of your eye, is pulling away from the blood vessels that provide it with blood and nutrients. People also describe a curtain-like shadow covering the whole or parts of their vision or shadows in their peripheral vision. Detached retinas can lead to permanent vision loss without correction.

• Cataracts - If the clear part of your eye that helps focus light becomes clouded, your vision may become hazy, less colorful, and blurry. Cataract surgeries can often fix this. Left unchecked, it leads to vision loss.

• Macular Degeneration - Part of the retina, the macula, controls straight-ahead vision. While not causing complete blindness, it can make up-close activities like reading, driving, or seeing faces challenging. Vision often blurs or becomes distorted in specific parts of the eye.
  
  

Severe Myopia:

• Bleeding Retinas - Also known as retinal hemorrhaging, bleeding retinas can cause undetected to severe vision problems. Diseases affecting blood flow like high blood pressure and diabetes can lead to extreme myopia, but often damage comes from a severe hit to the head. Sudden changes in vision should be analyzed shortly after such impacts.

• Blindness - At this point, the disease cannot be corrected. Sight becomes severely limited and can progress to complete blindness in different cases.

• Loss of Vision - Corrective lenses and surgery can help gradual vision loss, it can also occur suddenly. Getting into a doctor to determine the cause(s) can help them treat or save vision.
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Benefits Of Ortho-K Lenses for Myopia Control and Treatment

• Ortho-K lenses may feel odd at first, but they provide painless correction that takes effect quickly.

• They usually become fully effective in 10 to 14 days.

• Your child will wake up without the need for glasses or contacts.

• Both children and teens can benefit from them.

• Mild astigmatism can be treated easily.

• If your child quits using the lenses, their eyes will not be damaged at all from the treatment, but their vision will return to the state they were in before using the lenses.

• Ortho-K lenses offer a great alternative to Lasik surgery.
  
  

How to Manage Myopia in Children

Children regularly outside often don’t develop myopia as severely. Limiting screen time, using larger screens, taking regular screen breaks, and working in well-lit areas will reduce strain on your child’s eyes and help slow the progression of myopia.

Methods For Children’s Myopia Management

• Low Dose Atropine Eye Drops - Applying these drops to the eyes before sleeping can significantly slow myopia’s progress up to half. Most kids report no side effects to mild redness or itching around the eye.

• Peripheral Defocus Contact Lenses - Manufacturers design myopia lenses to stop peripheral or off-center light rays from being brought into focus at the back of the eye. Both overnight, such as Ortho-K, and daytime lenses exist to help correct nearsightedness.

• Ortho-K Lenses - Check out the Benefits Of Ortho-K Lenses for Myopia Treatment above to learn more about these safe and effective overnight lenses.

• Specialist Glasses - The lenses in myopia glasses work differently than normal ones. Many of them have tiny etchings on their surface to focus on slowing the progressive growth of the eyeball. These glasses slow the rate that myopia that affects the long-term eye health of the wearer.

How Do I Know If My Child Needs Myopia Management?

Common signs of nearsightedness include:

• Headaches from eye strain

• Difficulty driving, especially at night

• Fatigued from driving or playing sports

• Blurry vision when looking at distant objects

• Squinting or partially closing the eyes to see clearly

• Unawareness of distant objects

• Excessive blinking

• Frequently rubbing eyes

• Sitting close to the TV

How to Manage Myopia in Adults

While doctors typically catch myopia early on, it can develop in adulthood as well. Since most adults finish growing by 18, they become eligible for surgery in addition to the typical myopia treatments for children.

Different Methods to treat Adult Myopia Progression