Myopia Awareness Week: Is myopia curable or reversible?

When a child is diagnosed with myopia (myopia), the first concern of parents is whether it will be cured or reversed. Are parents also worried about whether their children will have to wear glasses for the rest of their lives? To understand the answer to this question, we need to know the various causes of myopia.

What is myopia?

Nearsightedness or myopia is a common eye problem that children must wear negative power glasses. Myopia mainly has three types of her.

1. Axial myopia: This refers to a condition in which the eyeballs grow in size and become larger than normal for the child’s age. This is the most common type of myopia.

2. Corneal myopia: In this type of myopia, the front edge of the eye (cornea) becomes steeper due to pathologies such as keratoconus or bulbar keratoses. This type of myopia is often accompanied by high astigmatism (cylindrical power) due to changes in the shape of the cornea.

3. Lens Myopia: Here the shape or position of the lens of the eye is abnormal. In all three types of myopia, light rays eventually focus on the surface in front of the retina, blurring vision. Mild myopia affects only distance vision. However, severe myopia affects visual acuity at all viewing distances.

Also read: Myopia may increase risk of developing cataract complications

myopia treatment

The million-dollar question? Can myopia be cured or reversed? Well, it also depends on your type of myopia.

For corneal-type myopia due to keratoconus, there are special treatments that strengthen corneal collagen to prevent corneal steepness progression. In advanced stages, a corneal transplant may be necessary. In such cases, myopia may decrease after treatment, but patients still need glasses or contact lenses for clear vision.

Lens myopia can be treated with phacoplasty, which replaces the abnormal lens with a normal-shaped lens. Myopia will be reduced after surgery, but you will need glasses to focus for near reading.

Axial myopia is increasing at an alarming rate worldwide. Changes in lifestyle are thought to be the cause of the recent boom in myopia. These include being too close to work and lacking outdoor exposure, especially during COVID-19 restrictions. Since this type of myopia is caused by elongation of the eyeballs, it is understandable that no medicine or surgery can reduce the size of the eyeballs. Therefore, once myopia progresses, it cannot be reversed.

In fact, axial myopia tends to progress with age. A scary aspect of eye elongation is that severe myopia (eye size > 26 mm) greatly increases the risk of myopic retinal complications such as retinal detachment and retinal degeneration. Therefore, the focus of myopia treatment is on myopia prevention.
Progressive ocular elongation.

progression of myopia

The rate of progression varies between populations and is thought to be more advanced in Asian countries compared to Western countries. Various risk factors for myopia progression are:

* Presence or absence of myopia in the parent (if the parent is also myopic)
* Higher myopia at onset
* Younger age of onset
* Overly close to work

How can I reduce myopia risk?

Myopic children are advised to avoid prolonged close working hours, such as reading picture books, using digital devices, and drawing.

The recommendation is to engage in a total of 4-5 hours of nearby work, including school-related work. By increasing outdoor activities, children will enjoy alternative entertainment and exposure to protective natural sunlight. You should develop good reading habits, such as reading in an upright position and in good lighting. Also, night reading should be avoided.

While the lifestyle modifications listed above are important, they may not be enough to slow the progression of myopia in many children.follow these Tips to improve your child’s eyesight.

Tips to slow the progression of myopia

Certain pharmacological and optical methods can slow the progression of myopia. These include certain eye drops, as well as specialized myopia-control glasses and contact lenses.

Your child’s eye doctor will be able to advise you on what is best for you. A combination of these methods may be needed in children with a very high rate of progression.

Glasses can be removed with refractive surgery such as LASIK (laser in situ keratomileusis), ICL (implantable contact lenses), or CLE (clear lens extraction). These surgeries can only be done after the eyeball has stopped growing and the eye power has stabilized. This usually occurs after the age of 18-20. Before that, it is important to control ocular elongation through the various methods described above to reduce the risk of vision-threatening myopia complications.