Myopia Control
in Shelton & Waterbury, CT
If your child was recently diagnosed with myopia or is showing signs of nearsightedness, you may be wondering about the next best steps. At Vision Center LTD and Waterbury Eye Associates, we offer myopia management in Shelton and Waterbury to help slow or halt myopia progression in children and adolescents.
While regular glasses and contact lenses can help children see clearly, they can’t stall the progression of myopia. Only myopia management can help you take control of your child’s myopia, improving their quality of life and protecting their future vision.
What is Myopia?
Myopia, also known as nearsightedness, is a common condition where people can’t see objects in the distance, such as a blackboard in a classroom setting or road signs when driving a car. However, they can see objects up close clearly, such as a smartphone, tablet, book, or computer. Common symptoms of myopia include squinting, eye strain, headaches, and feeling fatigued after driving.
What Causes Myopia?
Myopia happens when the eyeball is either too long or when the cornea or lens is too curved for the shape of the eyeball.
Myopia usually begins in childhood, and children with one or both parents who are nearsighted are more at risk of developing it. If your child has been diagnosed with myopia, you can see the world through your child’s eyes through this myopia simulator.
Myopia in children is usually treated by wearing eyeglasses or contact lenses. Sometimes the condition stabilizes by the time a child reaches adulthood, but other times, the nearsightedness continues to get progressively worse. Progressive myopia is usually caused by the eyeball shape growing longer with time.
People with progressive myopia are at a higher risk of developing eye health problems later in life including glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, or retinal detachment.
What is Myopia Control?
Myopia control refers to treatments that slow or stop the progression of myopia so that nearsightedness does not get any worse. Our eye doctors in Shelton and Waterbury offer MiSight® 1 day contact lenses and Paragon CRT® lenses as effective methods of myopia control for children and adolescents.
MiSight® 1 day contact lenses
At Vision Center LTD and Waterbury Eye Associates, we are certified providers of MiSight® 1 day contact lenses. MiSight® contact lenses are the first and only soft contact lenses that are FDA-approved to slow the progression of myopia in children 8-12 years of age at the beginning of treatment. That means that they’ve been comprehensively tested over an extended period and have met all the safety criteria required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Not only is this form of myopia management safe, but it has also been proven to be effective for young children. Children ages 8–12 wearing MiSight® 1 day contact lenses experienced an average of 59% reduction of myopia progression over three years.1
Paragon CRT® lenses
We offer Paragon CRT® (corneal refractive therapy) ortho-k lenses as a safe and effective myopia management option for children and adolescents. Ortho-k, also known as orthokeratology, uses specially designed lenses to temporarily reshape the front of the eye to improve vision and potentially slow down myopia progression. The patient wears the lenses overnight and when they wake in the morning, they can enjoy clear vision all day without contact lenses or glasses.
Myopia Control in Shelton and Waterbury
Interested in learning more? Book a pediatric eye exam for your child at one of our offices and ask about myopia control. We will check your child’s eyes and guide you both through the next steps.
Sources: Cooper Vision- Learn About Myopia