You are concerned about how being myopic can bring inconvenience to your child’s daily life, may even affect their academic performance and even future career choices.
You have even heard that Myopia increases their risk of blindness! You know you need to do something about it and you have. You tried giving them diet rich in Vit A, omega-3, and leafy vegetables, sit further away from the TV, or even reduce digital device usage, but their spectacle prescription increases year after year.
You are feeling helpless and lost. Let us help!
For children with Myopia, their eye ball is longer than the focusing mechanism of the eye. So their vision for seeing far away object is blurry. It is important that we use glasses or contact lenses to correct this, to give your child the best possible vision so that they can excel both academically and socially.
Myopia Control means using proven intervention to keep your child's myopia power as low as possible. This is not only to have thinner and lighter prescription lenses.
More importantly, it is to prevent the eyeball from growing too long. The higher the myopic power, the longer the eyeball, which increases the risk of vision loss later in life.
Therefore it is important that we keep their myopia power as low as possible, to safeguard their eye health for the future.
Scientist have found that myopia progression is fastest between the age of 7 to 12 years old. The younger a child develop myopia, the higher the risk of them developing high myopia. So we will want to see them early/
We strongly recommend that every child should go through a comprehensive eye exam by age 6, so as to assess their risk of developing myopia. Risk factors includes current vision status, family history, environmental risk, lifestyle risk, etc.
If a child is found to be at risk, 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 new technologies that can slow down myopia progress by up to 59%*, including
Soft Contact Lens, Specialty Spectacle Lenses & Orthokeratology (Ortho-K / OK Lens)
Our goal is to keep the myopia progression as slow as possible, thus reducing the risk of them becoming high myopes. We understand that this is an important decision and the information out there can be overwhelming.
That is where we come in.
Examine 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, how well both eyes working in unison, measure the length of the eyeballs, etc
You will be informed about your child’s current vision status, their risk factor(s), the latest myopia control technologies, its pros, and cons and of course its suitability to your child.
From here, we will customize a plan, whether it is to monitor your child’s progression or needing immediate intervention.
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 impacts the rate of eyeball growth.
We will work with parents to counsel their children to have better visual habits and spend more time outdoor.
Ortho-K, also known as OK-lens or orthokeratology. This is a specialty contact lens that acts like braces to the eyes. The lenses reshape the eye to allow clear vision in the daytime and controls myopia at the same time. OK often proves to be the most effective way in controlling myopia progression.
It has 3 main key benefits:
1. It has been scientifically proven to slow down myopia progression.
2. These lenses are only worn at night during sleep, so parents have control during these lens worn hours.
3. This is a totally reversible process.
For children, that are not suitable for ortho-k lenses, there are also soft contact lenses option. These soft contact lenses are worn during the day, it is a specially designed contact lens that controls myopia progression and brings clear vision to the child at the same time.
These daily disposable contact lenses brings about convenience, also no need to worry about protein/lipid deposits or build up, therefore hassles in cleaning the lenses are removed.
For children who are not suitable (who have have reading / eye muscles issues) or younger children who are not ready for contact lenses, there are also various spectacle options.
These lenses are specifically designed to allow us to control where and how images are formed and positioned in the eyes.
This has also been found to be an effective method in slowing down myopia growth.
The child will also be educated by the practitioner on how to use the glasses correctly.
We also offer a
Checking your child's eyes 4 times a year.
Keeping a close eye of your child's myopia status
Myopia is very common in Singapore, affecting more than 80% of the adult population here. Myopia in most cases is caused by the elongation of the eyeball, it’s symptom is blurry distance vision. The higher the myopia power, the longer the eyeball and thus increases the 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, can help remove the symptoms of blurry vision, but does not solve the problem of increased risk of blindness due to excessive eyeball elongation. There are now myopia control technologies and methods that have been scientifically shown to slow down the progression of myopia.
NOTE: Traditional spectacle lenses and contact lenses do not slow down the progression of myopia. They help to correct your refractive errors and allow you to see clearly but does not have any form of myopia control. Myopia control solutions not only help patients see clearly, but more importantly slow down the progression of myopia by as high as 50%. The goal is to reduce the risk of possible future vision loss caused by blinding eye diseases due to high myopia.
We believe that one solution does not solve all problems. Every child is different and there is a strong need to personalize solution(s) depending on the situation of each child. We tasked ourselves to be well-trained in the latest myopia control technologies and options, so that we have an array of solutions to offer to our patients.
When a child comes on board, we will put them through a Myopia Control Program that includes a wide range of tests, determine contributing factors and likely causes leading to myopia increase before an appropriate control solution is recommended. As myopia control management 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.
Children who demonstrate the below criteria should come to us for Myopia Control Consultation
• Children who are myopic between the age of 5 to 12
• Children who are experiencing increasing myopia year after year
• Children who has at least one parents who is myopic
• Children who spend excessive time on digital device, reading and on near work
Our motto and motivation is in placing our patient’s interest as priority so that we can achieve the best clinical outcome. One solution does not fit all, because we believe all our patients are different and have unique needs, especially when it comes to kids and myopia control. We place emphasis to educate the pros and cons of each technology has to offer, and take time to understand what each and every kid truly needs.
Come talk to us together with your kid and understand what can be done. 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 who is still able to see clearly further away. It’s important that your child quickly get an eye check to determine if he/she really need any spectacles.
Please bring the following:
•Existing spectacles or contact lens
•Existing myopia treatment plan information (if applicable)
Orthokeratology is one of our key myopia control solutions. Many of our students who are myopic and astigmatic are already on Orthokeratology (OK) treatment where results have shown to be excellent for myopia control. OK uses specially designed contact lenses, very much like braces, to gently mould the central part of the cornea during sleep and clear vision is achieved without glasses or contact lenses during waking hours. It is totally reversible with clear vision throughout the day and we have great success for myopia control results..
Various specialty spectacle lenses and/or specialty soft contact lenses can also be customized for your child, depending on their lifestyle and habits. We only use myopia control technologies that are irreversible and non-invasive. No medication or surgical procedure is required.
As mentioned above, specialty spectacle lenses and soft contact lenses are also available. When our optometrists mention a certain treatment option for your child, very often, they take into consideration on firstly, the success control percentage of the recommended treatment, and secondly, what would match your child’s lifestyle and habits most? Most of our kids are first time contact lens wearers and have no problem with it. We find our kids are highly compliant with contact lens care and they understand the importance of hygiene and following instructions that we set out for them. You’ll be surprised that kids are often better wearers than adults. Nevertheless, we will always talk to the kids and their parents on their preference before carrying forward any treatment options.
Myopia can be complicated and difficult to pinpoint the exact cause that aggrevates the progression. Factors including long hours of near work, lack of outdoor activities, growth of a child, eye muscles coordination, etc, which may lead to myopia progression. Besides checking on the refractive status and the eye muscles coordination of the child, we also have advanced instrumentation to measure the actual length of the eyeball. Usually, the higher the myopia power, the longer the eyeball. However, for a more holistic control management, 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 on the progression but it is also equally important to monitor the eyeball length closely, so that we know if a certain method is not working well, we could switch to other options
The cost of myopia control solutions ranges from $250 to $2500, depending on the form of myopia control technology used. Sometimes for aggressive progressors, a combination of solutions are 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. Giving your child a baseline eyecheck is important so that all of us know whether the eye is growing too quickly over in their growth years. We have parents bringing their kids at age 4 to 5 to check on their eyes. Like a visit to the dentist, the care for eyes for a child is extremely important. We often take our sight for granted until when we start putting on glasses, and often with the clear vision provided by the glasses become a part of our lives, we often assume clear vision means good eye health. On the contrary, clear vision does not equate healthy eyes. High myopia has been associated with many blinding eye conditions that often happens in our late adulthood. The best time to start paying attention to your child’s eye is before they become myopia, especially if either or both parents are myopic and your child is spending excessive time on digital device or near work. It is important to know that myopia in most case is not reversible and is progressive.
Come speak to us on how to keep myopia away from your child.
