Short-sightedness or myopia refers to the phenomenon of not being able to see objects clearly that are placed a little far away from their eyes. However, this does not affect the vision of seeing things which are placed nearby. This problem usually occurs due to slight elongation of the eyes. There is no apparent reason as to why the eyes become elongated. However, some of the common reasons which have been found are prolonged periods of sitting in front of screens which causes the light to focus in front of the retina which makes it difficult for us to view objects that are placed far away.
These days it is quite common to find children behind screens hence it shouldn’t surprise you to see that most of the young children are suffering from short-sightedness. Therefore, in order to keep this problem in check for children, doctors have devised a treatment plan called shortsightedness control. This refers to a treatment plan which helps in slowing down the progression of short-sightedness in people.
Categories of Short Sightedness (Myopia) Control:
This treatment plan is very important for children as it will help them in the future and also prevent them from falling prey to various eye diseases which might make living normally difficult for them. Let us now have a look at the categories or the treatments which are followed for the purpose of myopia control.
Multifocal Contacts:
These are contact lenses that come with corrective measures for presbyopia which refers to having both near-sightedness and far-sightedness. However, despite their specific use for presbyopia, it has been found in various researches that such lenses are quite effective in treating myopia in children. A study consisting of a number of students was conducted to find out which contact lenses are the best for shortsightedness control. In that study it was found that students wearing multifocal contacts had 50% slower progression of short-sightedness. Hence this is a great measure of controlling myopia in children.
Multifocal Eyeglasses:
These have a quite similar working to that of multifocal lenses. However, in many studies, it was found that they are a bit slower in slowing down the process of short-sightedness in children. On the contrary, in a study it was found that children with short sightedness were able to control the progression by up to 51%. Therefore, keeping these factors in mind before deciding on the type of treatment you would like your kid to undergo for shortsightedness control is very important.
Orthokeratology:
Orthokeratology refers to a treatment which uses special gas permeable lenses which are worn during sleep at night. They work on the correction of eyesight on the night and make it possible for the person to go without any other correcting lenses throughout the day. In various studies, it was found that by this process we could reduce the length of the eyeball significantly by 43% compared to those who wore traditional shortsightedness control glasses or lenses. These are often referred to as corneal reshaping lenses or cornea refractive therapy.
Therefore, these are the four main categories of a treatment plan for short-sightedness control in children. We should, however, know that there is no cure to the problem of short sightedness. Also, this therapy is most effective in children rather than adults. Hence, if your child is suffering from myopia you should take him to the optometrist immediately and consult for this shortsightedness control program. This will help the children greatly in the future otherwise myopic eyes with exposure to increased screen time can become worse for the children in the future. This is why you should go to your nearest optometrists as soon as possible.
