Myopia, commonly known as near-sightedness, is a refractive error where light rays entering the eye are focused in front of the retina instead of on it. This may cause distant objects to appear blurry while near objects can be seen clearly. In comparison to the normal rate of eye growth, myopia can occur when the eyeball grows quickly and becomes too long, or when the cornea is excessively curved. It may also be due to an abnormal lens shape.
Myopia typically develops in children before the age of 10 and may progress into the teenage years and early adulthood.
Myopia control involves intervention to manage your children’s myopia at a minimal level, reducing the chances of thick prescription lenses and the eyeball from growing too long. The higher the myopic power, the longer the eyeball, which may increase the risk of vision loss later in life.
Therefore, it is important that we manage their myopia power as low as possible to safeguard their eye health for the future. Every child is different, and there is a strong need to design solution(s) based on the child’s situation.
As parents, you might feel concerned about how being myopic may impact your child’s daily activities, academic performance, and future career choices.
Also, you must have heard that myopia may increase the risk of blindness. Hence, you tried to do something to manage it. You tried giving them a diet rich in Vit A, omega-3, and leafy vegetables, asking them to sit further away from the TV, or even reducing their digital device usage, but their spectacle prescription increases year after year.
If you feel lost in managing your child’s myopia progression, let us guide you.
Scientists have found that myopia may progress rapidly between the ages of 7 and 12. The younger a child develops myopia, the higher the risk of developing high levels of myopia. We recommend that you bring your child for comprehensive eye check-ups by the age of 6 so as to assess their risk of developing myopia. Risk factors include current vision status, family history, environmental and lifestyle risks, etc.
If your child is found to be at risk of myopia, we will educate both parents and child; suggest lifestyle modification and glasses or contact lenses if required, depending on each child's need.
There are several approaches that may help slow down myopia progression in children by approximately 50%, including:
Soft Contact Lenses:Designed to be worn during the day, these lenses can help manage myopia progression. They focus on how light is directed to the retina, which may influence the eye’s growth pattern in a helpful way.
Speciality Spectacle Lenses:Unlike regular glasses, these lenses are designed with special optics to manage how the images are focused on and around the retina. This approach may help manage the elongation of the eyeball associated with myopia.
Orthokeratology (Ortho-K / OK Lens): Ortho-K is a non-surgical solution for myopia control. It involves specially designed, wearable lenses that help reshape the cornea overnight. This reshaping may correct myopia, allowing clear vision during the day without the need for glasses or contact lenses.
Our goal is to manage the myopia progression, minimising the risk of your child becoming highly myopic. We understand that this is an important decision, and the information out there can be overwhelming.
This is where we come in.
Children who demonstrate the following criteria may consider our Myopia Control Consultation:
Children who are myopic between the ages of 5 and 12.
Children who are experiencing increasing myopia year after year.
Children who have at least one myopic parent.
Children who spend excessive time on digital devices.
We will evaluate the family history, environmental factors, and ocular status to determine the child’s myopia risk profile.
We will run a series of clinical tests, including assessing how well their eyes are working for seeing far and near, checking how well both eyes are working in unison, measuring the length of the eyeballs, etc.
We will provide a detailed explanation of your child’s current vision status, their risk factor(s), myopia controlapproaches, their prosand cons, and of course, their suitability to your child.
Based on the findings, we will design a plan, whether it is to monitor myopia progression in your children or immediate intervention.
For myopia management in children, we may recommend a combination ofglasses or contact lenses, along with lifestyle changes.
For many children, relaxation from studies is usually time with digital devices, which can contribute to further myopia progression.
Studies have found that spending more time out under the sun increases the release of a neurotransmitter in the body, which may impact the rate of eyeball growth.
We will work with parents to advise their children to have better visual habits and spend more time outdoors.
Ortho-K, also known as OK lens or orthokeratology, is a specially designed contact lens that acts like braces to the eyes. These lenses help reshape the eyes to improve vision during the daytime and manage myopia concurrently. OK lenses may also be the most helpful way to manage myopia progression in children.
These lenses boast 3 key benefits:
They have been scientifically proven to slow down myopia progression.
These lenses are only worn at night during sleep, so parents may have greater control during lens-worn hours.
The process is reversible.
For children who are not suitable for Ortho-K lenses, there is also a soft lens option. These soft contact lenses are worn during the day and are specially designed to manage myopia progression and improve the child’s vision at the same time.
These daily disposable contact lenses may also be convenient. Plus, you can worry less about protein/lipid deposits or build-up, as there is no need to clean the lenses.
The role of soft contact lenses in managing myopia is to slow down rapid eye growth in children. They involve adjusting the focus of light across different parts of the retina, the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye. This is essential because the retina is where all visual information is processed for clear vision.
In contrast to standard single-vision lenses or glasses, which focus only on central vision, myopia control lenses adopt a specific approach. They are designed to redirect peripheral light rays to focus in front of the retina. This method may help to counter the typical pattern found in myopic eyes, where peripheral light focuses behind the retina, signalling the eye to grow longer. By reversing this effect, myopia glasses and contact lenses may help slow down the rapid eye growth commonly observed in myopic children. The outcome may help your children to enjoy clear central vision while the lens simultaneously helps to control myopia progression.
For children who are not suitable, especially those with reading/eye muscles issues, or younger children who are not ready for contact lenses, there are also various spectacle options to manage myopia.
These lenses are specifically designed to manage where and how the images are formed and positioned in the eyes. In fact, this method has also been found to help slow down myopia growth.
The children will also be guided by the practitioner on how to use myopia glasses correctly.
NOTE: Traditional glasses and contact lenses do not help to slow down the progression of myopia. They help manage your refractive errors and help you see clearly, but do not have any form of myopia control.
Understanding the cost of myopia management programmes in Singapore is crucial for parents planning for their child’s myopia control. The pricing strategy is designed based on the following:
Please note that these prices are subject to change, and we recommend booking a consultation to discuss a suitable myopia management programme for your child.
We also offer a
Regular check-ups are essential in keeping track of your child's myopia status.
Myopia is very common in Singapore, affecting more than 80% of the adult population here. In most cases, it may be caused by the elongation of the eyeball, resulting in blurry vision from a distance. The higher the myopia power, the longer the eyeball and thus the higher risk of vision loss due to glaucoma, cataract and retina pathology. It is important to know that traditional glasses, contact lenses and even refractive surgery, may help manage the symptoms of blurry visionbut do not solve the problem of increased risk of blindness due to excessive eyeball elongation.
When a child comes on board, we will put them through a Myopia ControlProgramme that includes arange of tests which determine the contributing factors and likely causes leading to myopia increase before recommending an appropriate control solution. As myopia controlmanagement is long-term, it is important that the parents and child understand and, together with the optometrist, commit to the solutions adopted prior to implementation.
The consultation will help determine if your child has a high myopia risk profile and whether a yearly review is sufficient or a further evaluation is required.
Yes, 6/9 means your child needs to stand nearer to the object to see clearly, as compared to a child who has 6/6 vision and is still able to see clearly further away. It is important that your child receive an eye check to determine if he/sheneeds any spectacles.
Please bring the following:
Various speciality spectacle lenses and/or speciality soft contact lenses may be designed for your child, depending on their lifestyle and habits. We may use myopia control technologies that are irreversible and non-invasive. No medication or surgical procedure is required.
As mentioned above, speciality spectacle lenses and soft contact lenses for myopia control are also available. When our optometrists recommend a certain treatment option for your child, they may consider the success rate of the recommended treatment and what would match your child’s lifestyle and habits. Most of our young patients are first-time contact lens wearers and have no problem with it. We find they are highly compliant with contact lens care, and they understand the importance of hygiene and the instructions that we set out for them. You may be surprised that kids are often better wearers than adults. Nevertheless, we always consult the kids and their parents about their preferences before carrying forward any treatment options.
Myopia can be complicated, and it is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause that aggravates the progression in children. Factors may include long hours of near work, lack of outdoor activities, growth of a child, eye muscles coordination, etc. Besides checking on the refractive status and the eye-musclecoordination of the child, we also have specific instrumentation to measure the actual length of the eyeball. Usually, the higher the myopia power, the longer the eyeball. However, for more holistic controlmanagement, we should not just focus on either the refractive status or eyeball length. We need to look at all the results to determine if a certain myopia control method is working well. Refractive power is an easy way to judge the progression, but it is also equally important to monitor the eyeball length closelyso thatif a certain method is not working well, we can switch to other options.
The cost of myopia control solutions may range from $250 to $3400, depending on the form of myopia control technology used. Sometimes, for aggressive progressors, a combination of solutions may be required.
Yes, you can. In fact, if you find your child is squinting or tilting his/her head at a certain angle to see, it may be a good indication for an eye check-up for myopia. Giving your child a baseline eye check can be helpful so that all of us know whether the eye is growing too quickly in their growth years. We have parents bringing their kids at ages 4 to 5 to check on their eyes. Like a visit to the dentist, the care of a child’s eyes is extremely important. We often take our sight for granted until we start putting on glasses, and often with clear vision provided by the glasses becoming a part of our lives, we often assume clear vision means good eye health. On the contrary, clear vision does not equate to healthy eyes. High myopia has been associated with many blinding eye conditions that often happen in late adulthood. The best time to start paying attention to your child’s eye is before they become myopic, especially if either or both parents are myopic, and your child is spending excessive time on a digital device or near work. It is important to know that myopia, in most cases, is progressive and not reversible.
Consult us to learn how to keep myopia away from your child.
