Myopia management
An ever-increasing problem
Recognise the signs
How do you know if your child is nearsighted? A first sign is that your child can no longer see clearly in the distance. You will notice this, for example, if your child has difficulty reading the interactive whiteboard in class. Is this a problem? Often not: in most cases, nearsightedness is easy to correct with the help of glasses or contact lenses with a negative value. It will be different if you notice your child’s nearsightedness increasing and the negative power in the glasses getting stronger. In this case, the myopia is progressive. If no action is taken to slow down myopia, there is a chance that your child will develop high myopia (a value of -6 or higher). Besides being frustrating for your child, high myopia also poses a risk of eye problems later in life. The risk of serious eye disorders such as myopic retinal degeneration or retinal detachment is greater with high myopia.
Check-ups
In order for the myopia treatment programme to succeed, it is essential that regular check-ups take place. Every eye is unique and it is always possible that a proven treatment method will not have the desired effect. In that case, action should be taken as early as possible. Your specialist will inform you in detail about the check-ups that form part of the treatment method. The check-ups verify whether the chosen method is actually slowing down the growth of the eye. These periodic check-ups give the specialist a good insight into the development of myopia and the possible growth of the eye.
Frequently asked questions
It is understandable to be concerned if your child is nearsighted at a young age and therefore needs to wear glasses or contact lenses to see clearly over a distance. However, just because your child is nearsighted doesn’t mean they also have progressive myopia. It is quite possible that the myopia will stabilise and therefore not constantly increase. It is very important for your child’s myopia to be well controlled, because the chances of slowing down progressive myopia are greatest at a young age. Therefore, the sooner an appropriate treatment method is started, the more successfully myopia can be slowed down.
Although myopia is a growing health problem, myopia treatments are not yet reimbursed by health insurers. We hope that the growing demand for myopia management treatments will soon lead to it being included in the basic package. Visser Contactlenzen advises you to contact your health insurer to see if there may be a reimbursement.