Nearsightedness: Not Just An Inconvenience
Although eyeglasses and standard contact lenses can correct a person’s vision, they do not treat the underlying cause of myopia or slow its progression.
Myopia significantly increases the risk of developing sight-threatening eye diseases later in life, such as cataracts, glaucoma, retinal detachment, and macular degeneration. The higher your child’s myopia, the greater the risk.
If you’re concerned about your child’s long-term eye health and vision, contact the Myopia Management Center at Atkinson Eye Care in Algonquin today.
What is Myopia Management?
Myopia management is an area of eye care that uses custom treatments to prevent or slow your child's myopia progression. Depending upon your child's specific needs, our eye care team in Algonquin can help your child maintain clearer vision for longer.
We slow the progression of nearsightedness by using the following treatment methods:
Myopia Management Reviews
Symptoms of Myopia
- Your child struggles to see things clearly at a distance
- Difficulties seeing the board in class
- Your child squints to see far away objects
- They complain of headaches and eyestrain
- Difficulties with sports that involve small balls, such as baseball or tennis
Myopia and Eye Diseases
As your child’s myopia progresses and worsens, they heighten their risk of developing vision-threatening eye diseases later in life.
In fact, their odds of developing vision loss due to glaucoma, macular degeneration, or retinal disease increase by as much as 10x!
Myopia Treatment
The good news? Myopia management and regular eye exams with our optometry team can help your child regain clear vision, and slow down or even stop their vision from worsening.
How Do I Know If My Child Needs Myopia Management?
If you are concerned about your child’s myopia, call our practice today. Our eye doctor will help you understand more about your child's nearsightedness and will determine whether your child is a candidate for myopia management.
Take our myopia assessment online to find out whether your child could benefit from this life-changing treatment.
Our Myopia Management Team
Myopia increases the risk of serious eye diseases
Myopia can significantly increase your risk of developing potentially sight-threatening eye conditions in the future. But how much does your risk grow, exactly?
Research shows that the worse your myopia is, the higher your risk. For example, your risk of developing myopic maculopathy, an especially severe form of macular degeneration, is 2.2x higher if your prescription is -2.00, and jumps to 9.7x at -4.00, 40.6x higher at -6.00, and is a whopping 126.8x higher at a prescription of -8.00.
This is why it’s so essential to stop myopia progression in its tracks with myopia management.
What Factors Increase Risk of Myopia?
According to our eye care team, the following factors may increase the risk of nearsightedness:
Myopic parents (one or both) increases the child's risk of nearsightedness.
Developing myopia before age 12 significantly increases the risk of severe myopia.
Spending too much time on digital screens and reading books can strain the eyes, increasing risk of nearsightedness.
