Myopia, also known as nearsightedness, refers to eye refractive errors that cause distant objects to be blurry while close objects become clear. This condition can worsen with time, especially in early adulthood, and cause myopia progression. Advancements in medical science have introduced multiple treatments for myopia and its progression.
Understanding the causes and treatments can prevent myopia from progressing and restore your standard sight capabilities. In this blog post, we will explore progressive myopia, its causes and risk factors, and the best strategies to manage it.
What Is Progressive Myopia?
Progressive myopia is a continuously intensifying condition of nearsightedness that gets worse every year. People with this condition need stronger glasses or contact lenses. It usually starts in childhood and often increases during the teenage years. In some cases, it may progress into early adulthood.
This happens when the eyeball becomes more extended than it should be. Light that enters the eye falls in front of the retina instead of on the focal point, causing blurry vision. This elongation causes severe problems with time. High myopia, a more severe form, can increase the risk of dangerous eye issues like myopic macular degeneration.
What are the Causes and Risk Factors of Myopia Progression?
Multiple factors, including genetics and environmental factors, can cause myopia to progress.Here are some causes and risk factors that are considered active to aggravate myopia.
- Genetic Factor
Myopia usually runs in genes. If parents are suffering from myopia, there are chances that the next generation will also have this.
- Lifestyle Influences
Excessive use of digital products, reading for a long time, and working in a dimly lit environment can lead to myopia. Moreover, prolonged close-up work increases its risk.
- Lack of Outdoor Activity
Reduced outdoor time is a significant factor in myopia. Sunlight is essential for normal eye development and growth. Studies reveal that children who spend most of their time indoors are more exposed to myopia than those who play outdoor games.
- Age
Myopia starts at an early age, when the eye’s development is still in process and gets intense with age.
How to Control Myopia Progression?
Proper care and treatment can prevent myopia from progressing further. Here are some effective solutions.
1. Spend More Time Outdoor
Spending outdoor time is a very impactful way to avoid myopia progression. Sunlight plays a role in producing and activating some vitamins that support normal eye development.
Experts say children should spend at least 90 minutes outdoors every day. Playing outside lets the eyes get natural light and focus on faraway objects. This reduces the strain caused by activities like reading or using screens for too long.
2. Take Care of Your Visual Hygiene
Proper visual hygiene can prevent myopia progression. The best ways to ensure eye health are sitting in good posture while reading, minimizing the use of digital products, maintaining a required view distance, and eating a good diet.
Moreover, using the 20-20-20 rule can be effective for the eyes. According to the rule, you should pause your onscreen activity after 20 minutes and focus 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This will help reduce eye strain caused by watching close things.
3. Use Low-Dose Atropine Eye Drops
Various eye drops are used to slow down progressive myopia in kids. Low-dose atropine is one efficient eye drop that relaxes the eye’s focusing effect and reduces eyeball elongation. This proven medical treatment for kids shows the best results at night before bedtime.
Studies reveal that atropine is significantly effective for kids to minimize the effect of myopia progression. However, kids must still use their glasses until myopia is permanently treated. This is a safe and impactful solution, but it is recommended to use them with the advice of your ophthalmologist.
4. Consider Specialized Eyewear
Using specialized eyeglasses and contact lenses helps normalize the refraction of light on the retina, which is considered adequate for reducing myopia progression. Myopia control glasses and multifocal contact lenses are helpful in lowering axial elongation.
5. Opt for Orthokeratology (Ortho-K) Lenses
Orthokeratology involves wearing contact lenses overnight to temporarily reshape the cornea. Because the cornea remains in good shape for the whole day, you can see clearly without using glasses or contact lenses. This method has proved helpful for both kids and adults and reduces the progression.
6. Repeated Low-Level Red Light Therapy is Also Helpful
Repeated low-level red light therapy is an emerging method to treat myopia progression. In this method, eyes are exposed to a specific frequency of red light for a specific time, reducing corneal tissue’s elongation. Research reveals that this is a promising treatment for progressive myopia in children without damaging eye structure or efficiency.
How Can Untreated Progressive Myopia Affect Your Health?
Progressive myopia affects daily activities like driving, playing sports, or studying. Continuously ignoring this issue can lead to severe problems, such as retinal detachment, cataracts, glaucoma, and myopic macular degeneration later in life. At this stage, this untreated myopia needs more spending on frequent eye exams and stronger glasses or contact lenses than before.
Progressive myopia can also cause permanent vision loss or blindness if not treated on time. With the right care and timely treatment, you can slow myopia, avoid serious issues, and protect your vision for the future.
Final Words
Progressive myopia is a major eye-related concern growing rapidly in children. By using the right strategies and on-time treatment, we can control its harmful impacts on eye health.
To control its progression, outdoor activities, a good diet, proper rest, specialized eyewear, Ortho-K lenses, and low-dose atropine drops are advised.
In particular, Texas Eye Care is the right place if you are looking for expert eye care to treat myopia progression. Their trusted treatment and expert ophthalmologist can help you maintain healthy vision for years.
FAQs
Observing symbols like squinting eyes, excessive blinking, sitting too close to the screen, eye rubbing, and difficulty seeing the board in the classroom can easily detect myopia in children.
Myopia starts at an early age and usually stabilizes at 18. However, sometimes, people stabilize their myopia at the age of 21 to 24. At 24, the maximum of myopia stops getting worse.
Myopia is usually fastest in kids from 7 to 10 years old. It slows down gradually after 10 years.
