Soft Multifocal Contacts For Myopia Management In New York City, New York
Myopia, also referred to as nearsightedness or short-sightedness, causes the eye to elongate from early childhood into the late teens. This elongation of the eye causes visual input (what your child sees) to focus in the front of the retina rather than on the retina proper. This is what causes poor distance vision and usually requires a new prescription at least once every year.
Regular glasses or contact lenses adjust for the poor focus, but do nothing to address the elongation of the eye itself and don’t slow the progression.
What many people don’t know is that myopia is dangerous. The more aggressive the progression, the more likely your child is to develop catastrophic vision problems later in life. This includes retinal detachment and macular degeneration—a leading cause of blindness. At the The Myopia Management Center At Vision On Park we use multifocal contact lenses as part of our toolkit for myopia management, which will slow or even stop the progression of your child’s myopia.
Specially applied use of soft multifocal contacts for myopia are a popular and effective technique for myopia management, backed by extensive research and prescribed across the globe by optometrists for children as young as 8.
What Are Soft Multifocal Contact Lenses?
Soft multifocal contact lenses are contact lenses featuring multiple prescriptions in a single lens. The lens will feature a prescription for very close objects, objects at intermediate distances, and objects at a distance.
The soft multifocal contact lenses are made of breathable flexible plastics which allow air to pass through the lens to the cornea for a healthy fit. The soft nature of the contact lenses makes them more comfortable to wear.
How Exactly Do Soft Multifocal Contact Lenses Help With Myopia Management?
These contact lenses are worn during the day like a regular contact lens and they adjust the distance focus in order to correct your child’s vision. But they also do more. In addition to adjusting for myopic distance vision, precise adjustments to your child’s near and intermediate vision are made as well. These finely tuned changes force your child’s eyes to adjust they way they focus in general. What this does is correct the Relative Peripheral Hyperopia (RPH) thereby preventing the eye from continuing the axial elongation responsible for your child’s myopia. The result is that the axial elongation is slowed or stopped, meaning that your child’s prescription will stop its rapid deterioration.
In short, by slightly altering how your child focuses in near and center vision, soft multifocal lenses are used to halt the elongation responsible for the myopia. This not only corrects your child’s vision, it slows or halts the prescription from getting worse. It protects your child’s eyes for a long life of healthy vision.
Just like adults, contact lenses are safe for kids. Any child responsible enough to practice good contact lens wearing habits can wear these soft multifocal contact lenses. Regardless of the age of your child, myopia is dangerous and needs to be managed.
Our New York City myopia management specialist will ascertain if multifocal contact lenses are the right choice for controlling your child’s myopia. In addition, there are daily disposable multifocal contact lenses to help your child adjust to contact lenses that are convenient and low maintenance. Contact lenses provide an added advantage of prevention of eye injuries which are common for younger children.
No. Once myopia sets in, it cannot be reversed. However, the progression of the myopia can and should be effectively managed. Slowing or halting the ongoing elongation of the eye is the key to slowing down how quickly your child’s eyes get worse. myopia management is essential for mitigating the serious long-term risks to your child’s vision.
All Myopia is dangerous to a child’s long-term vision. Children that have medium or high myopia (-6 or worse) are at an even greater risk of eye disease later in life. Because myopia is irreversible, it is crucial to begin managing the myopia at the first signs of nearsightedness to keep the prescription light and the risks as low as possible.
Yes. Even children with astigmatism worse than -1.00 can successfully use these soft multifocal contacts for myopia management.
Contact Our Eye Clinic Today!
Is your child nearsighted? Is his or her prescription just getting worse and worse? Call us or Book an Appointment to discuss your myopia management options with Dr. Tejal Rana in order to protect your child’s long-term vision. The The Myopia Management Center At Vision On Park provides effective myopia management for patients in New York City and the entire New York area.
What Are The Social Benefits of Myopia Control For Children?
Myopia usually develops between ages 8 to 16. The earlier myopia management is started, the more effective it is at keeping myopia relatively mild. This way, your child will not need successively stronger lenses. Unchecked, myopia can progress until there is no other option but to wear very thick glasses, resulting in a high risk for catastrophic vision problems.
Regardless of your child’s current prescription, children often feel more comfortable with their appearance compared to putting on eyeglasses. Additionally, these contact lenses are more convenient for sports or simply just roughhousing and running around with friends.
According To Clinical Studies On Contact Lens Use In Children:
- 80% of parents agreed that contact lenses made their children feel more confident
- 30% of parents feel their children are restricted during sports when wearing glasses, while 86% of kids say that they feel better about participating in sports when wearing contact lenses.
- 92% of parents and 93% of children say they like wearing contact lenses, this is compared to only 58% of children that report that they like wearing glasses
- Contact lenses prevent eye injuries that occur from sports when wearing eye glasses.
- Since contacts are fitted directly on the eye they provide better vision during sports and a wider range of viewing than glasses
- Most contacts used for myopia management come with UV protection which protects your child’s eyes from long term damage
- Because the progression of myopia is reduced, the rate of changing prescription is also reduced, leaving your child with better day to day vision in the classroom and better school performance
Patient Experiences / Parents Testimonials
The doctor recommended a contact lens for my 8-year-old son. His vision has significantly improved. His prescription has not gotten any worse and has remained the same now for almost 2 years. My entire family will continue using their eye care services.
I used to have to get my child new glasses every 4 months! We couldn’t keep up and it was affecting her ability to function at school. She has been coming to The Myopia Management Center At Vision On Park now for three years and was fitted with multifocal contacts. Her prescription has barely changed and she feels confident and comfortable at school without her glasses.