Facts about myopia
It’s likely that you know someone with myopia (AKA nearsightedness)—a family member, friend, colleague, or maybe even you yourself! But how much do you really know about this progressive eye disease, especially when it happens to kids? Here are four facts about myopia that may inspire you to be more proactive about your child’s eye health and long-term vision.
Myopia is a disease of the eye, in which the eyeball grows too long. The eyes’ job, obviously, is to see, which (over-simply), they do by taking in light and running it through the various components inside, in order to turn what they are perceiving into information that the brain can use. The structures inside the eyeball all have particular placement and shape for a functional reason—when things change shape, it affects the whole system’s ability to function properly. For example, a healthy eyeball is round, like a basketball; in a myopic eyeball, it is football shaped. This abnormal shape leads to light being focused in front of the retina instead of directly on it. (Note: The retina’s job is to receive light on it and convert that into visual information for the brain.) This shortfall in where the light is landing leads to the experience of objects in the distance appearing blurry.
Myopia is more common than you think. Myopia is an eye disease of epidemic proportions, affecting close to 2 billion people worldwide! Collectively, we are currently on pace to have half of the world’s population with some degree of myopia by the year 2050. Indoor time, excessive “near work” (think: screens), and genetic factors all play a role.
Myopia is a progressive condition. Myopia generally begins in childhood and progresses throughout the school-age years, usually stabilizing in the late teens. It’s especially important to monitor myopia progression in kids because they (and consequently their eyeballs!) are constantly growing, making their myopia potentially worse over time. This means there may be times in a child’s development where their growth spurt also yields a higher prescription due to an increase in their eyeball length. (On the upside, the eyeballs stop elongating once the rest of the body stops growing in early adulthood!) We recommend eye exams every six months to track myopia progress. Additionally, there are ways to treat myopia to prevent it from progressing—and the earlier it is treated, the better the outcome for their vision and overall eye health.
Myopia puts kids at risk for developing eye diseases in the future. Myopia is more than just a matter of clear vision—a child’s eye health is at stake. Myopic children are significantly more likely to develop sight-threatening eye diseases and conditions later in life, such as glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, and retinal detachment. Children with high myopia have a 50% higher risk of developing glaucoma, are three times more likely to develop cataracts, and six times more likely to develop retinal detachment as adults than children who don’t have myopia. The good news is that myopia management can help—a study published in the Journal of Optometry and Vision Science noted that when parents provided their children with myopia management, the risks of developing myopic maculopathy fell by 40%.
Let Dr. Kaur help your child manage myopia
Treehouse Eyes providers like Dr. Kaur develop personalized treatment plans for each myopia management patient they work with, using customized contact lenses and special prescription eye drops. Learn more about it here or schedule a consultation to find out more!