Myopia Control in San Diego

What Is Myopia?

Myopia is a refractive error, meaning it affects the way your eye refracts light. In order to see clearly, light has to land on the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of your eye. An eye with myopia is either too long, or has a cornea (the clear dome on the outer eye) that’s too steep, so light lands in front of the retina instead.

Since myopia is an error with the way your eye refracts light, eyeglasses, contact lenses, and laser eye surgery are commonly used to correct it. 

Myopia generally begins in childhood, and as children develop it at earlier ages, high myopia is becoming an area of concern. High myopia increases a person’s risk for:

• Open-angle glaucoma
• Cataracts
• Retinal tears and retinal detachment
• Myopic maculopathy or myopic macular degeneration

Myopia in Children

Our eyes grow fastest during childhood and slow down during adolescence. Myopia most commonly develops in school-aged children between ages 6 and 12, while the eyes are growing. 

Children who develop myopia around age 6 to 8 have more time for their myopia to progress than those who develop it later. And so younger children with myopia have a greater chance of developing high myopia and all the risks associated with it. 

There’s no known cause of myopia, but several factors are thought to contribute to it: 

• Genetics
• Urbanization
• Increased near work
• Reduced time spent outdoors

Myopia Control Methods

While there’s no cure for myopia, recent studies show several effective methods of slowing myopia progression.