Myopia Control
What is myopia?
Myopia, also called near-sightedness, occurs when patients can see well up close, but their distance vision is blurry.
It is caused by the eye growing longer over time, which stretches out the retina and neurological tissue and results in progressive vision loss and prescription changes.
Myopic patients are at a significantly higher risk of retinal detachments, glaucoma, and a host of other ocular diseases later in life, in addition to overall worsening vision.
Why is Myopia Control Important?
Short term benefits are similar to typical contact use: Corrected vision for daily activities, no glasses to lose or break, and accommodates a more active lifestyle compared to glasses.
A Myopia Management program also has many long term benefits for children as it slows the progression of nearsightedness and potentially minimizes the long term risk factors of moderate or high amounts of myopia.
Long term benefits include reducing the change in eye shape, which results in fewer prescription changes over time, and reduces the risk of retinal detachments, glaucoma, and other ocular diseases later in life.
MiSight Myopia Management Program
MiSight is a 1-day disposable, soft contact lens that fits and feels like other soft contacts. These lenses correct distance vision like any other contact but with dual focus technology to control retinal defocus. The lenses are FDA approved and clinically proven to slow the progression of myopia in children who began treatment by an average of 59%.
Additional Myopia Control Methods
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Atropine Eye Drop Therapy
Specially formulated low dose eye drops are instilled into both eyes every night, which cause the pupil to be very slightly dilated and cause the eye’s focusing mechanisms to relax.
These specialty eye drops must be ordered and shipped through a compounding pharmacy.
The approximate cost is $70 per month supply of eye drops.
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Corneal Reshaping Therapy
The child wears custom rigid gas permeable contact lenses while sleeping every night.
The lens reshapes the front of the eye by flattening the central cornea and providing vision correction for up to 20 hours.
Typical fees range between $2000 - $4000, depending on the complexity of the eyes and the number of follow up visits required.