Supporting Your Child’s Long-Term Vision Health
If you’ve noticed your child’s prescription getting stronger every year, they may be experiencing progressive myopia, commonly known as nearsightedness. While glasses can help them see clearly now, myopia control is a proactive method designed to slow down the rate at which their vision worsens.
By managing this progression during their childhood and teenage years, we can help preserve their eye health for the future. We invite parents throughout the Greater Los Angeles area to reach out to our team to discuss a personalized management plan.
Contact us today to book an appointment for your child at the Opticore location nearest you.
What Is Myopia Control?
Myopia occurs when the eye focuses light in front of the retina instead of directly on it, resulting in blurry distance vision. Often, childhood myopia occurs when the eye grows too long from front to back.
Myopia control aims to slow this elongation during a child’s growth years. By slowing this growth, your child should experience fewer prescription changes and eventually stabilize at a lower prescription than they would have otherwise.
Additionally, myopia control helps to reduce the risk of serious eye conditions, such as myopic maculopathy, retinal detachment, and early-onset cataracts, that can result from high myopia prescriptions.
Signs and Symptoms of Myopia in Children
Children may not be able to express their vision problems. Many young children don’t realize their vision is different from anyone else’s, as they have no other frame of reference for how the world should look.
Some common but less obvious symptoms of myopia that your child might exhibit include:
- Frequent squinting when looking at distant objects
- Sitting very close to the television or holding tablets or books near their face
- Rubbing their eyes frequently or excessive blinking
- Complaining of headaches, especially after school or outdoor activities
- A noticeable decline in school performance or difficulty focusing on sports
If you notice any of the symptoms, it is a good idea to bring your child in for an eye exam so we can assess their vision.
What Is the Role of Eye Exams in Myopia Control?
Eye exams allow your optometrist to monitor your child’s vision closely and look for early indicators of myopia. We recommend annual pediatric eye exams to monitor your child’s visual development as they grow.
These routine checkups are vital because they allow refractive errors to be caught in their earliest stages, creating a window for timely intervention. Since eye elongation and changes in prescription resulting from myopia cannot be reversed, controlling this growth is the most effective way to prevent high myopia.By staying consistent with annual exams, you help manage your child’s visual trajectory before their prescription reaches higher levels, which are accompanied by increased risks of complications in adulthood.
Our Myopia Control Methods
At Opticore Optometry Group, we approach myopia management through a combination of routine eye exams, regular monitoring of eye health and prescription changes, and tailored myopia treatments.
We offer several options that have been shown to help signal the eye to slow its growth, tailored to your child’s age and lifestyle. These include soft contact lenses and atropine eye drops, either on their own or in combination. We use continued monitoring to determine if their treatment is effectively controlling myopia progression.
These specialized soft contact lenses feature different zones of focus. While the center of the lens corrects their nearsightedness so they can see clearly, the outer edges help change how light hits the peripheral retina. This specific light pattern acts as a signal to the eye to slow down its elongation.
MiSight lenses are the first daily disposable contact lenses specifically FDA-approved to slow the progression of myopia in children. They are easy for children to use and provide the convenience of a fresh pair every day, which is excellent for active kids.
These lenses are designed to be worn during the day to provide clear vision while simultaneously reducing myopia progression by 59% compared to single vision lenses.
Low-dose atropine eye drops can be used to slow myopia progression. These medicated eye drops are administered once a day, typically at bedtime.
These drops are formulated at a very low concentration to help slow the growth of the eye with minimal side effects on pupil size or near vision. This is often a preferred method for younger children or those who may not be ready for contact lenses yet.
Taking the Next Step for Your Child’s Vision
Myopia control is an investment in your child’s future visual health. By using modern treatments and consistent monitoring, we can help reduce the impact that nearsightedness has on their daily life and their long-term well-being. Our goal is to provide a clear path forward that supports their success in school, sports, and beyond.
We are proud to offer myopia control at our various locations across the Greater Los Angeles area in Southern California. Contact us today to book a consultation at the clinic nearest you and learn more about how we can support your child’s vision.
Find Your Perfect Fit
with Contact Lenses
Contact lenses can provide you with a convenient and flexible alternative to glasses for clear vision. At Opticore, we provide dedicated contact lens exams and fittings to find the right style of lens for your vision needs.
Our optometrists provide a thorough exam that assesses your eye health, measures your contact lens prescription, and precisely maps the shape of your eye to find the perfect fit. Each of our locations also offers a local contact lens ordering system, making it easy for patients to reorder lenses through their preferred clinic.
Whether you are a first-time contact lens wearer or a seasoned pro, our team will work closely with you to make sure that your lenses are providing you with the visual clarity and comfort you deserve.
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