Myopia

What is Myopia, or Short-sightedness?

Myopia is a vision problem experienced by up to about one-third of the population. If you are short-sighted, you will have difficulty reading signs or seeing images at a distance. However, you may have excellent vision at close range for tasks such as reading, writing and other near-vision activities.

Myopia Symptoms and Signs

Short-sighted people often have headaches or eye strain, and might squint or feel fatigued when driving or playing sports. If you experience these symptoms while wearing your glasses or contact lenses, you may need a comprehensive eye examination, as well as a new prescription.

What Causes Myopia?

Myopia occurs when the eyeball is slightly longer than usual from front to back. This causes light rays to focus at a point in front of the retina, rather than directly on its surface. Short-sightedness runs in families and usually appears in childhood or in the early teenage years. This vision problem may stabilise at a certain point, although sometimes it worsens with age. This is known as myopic creep. Myopia will normally stop progressing by your late twenties or early thirties.

Myopia Treatment

Short-sightedness may be corrected with glasses or contact lenses. Depending on your vision problem, you may need to wear your glasses or contact lenses all the time, or only when you need distance vision, such as when driving, seeing a whiteboard or watching a movie. If you’re short-sighted, your prescription is a negative number. The higher the number, the stronger your lenses will be.

Another treatment option is refractive surgery. This treatment can reduce or even eliminate your need for glasses or contact lenses. The most common procedures are performed with an excimer laser.

• In LASIK, the most common refractive procedure, a flap is cut through the top of the cornea, a laser removes some corneal tissue, and then the flap is placed back into position.

Then there’s orthokeratology, also known as sleep lenses. It is a non-surgical procedure where you wear special rigid contact lenses, usually while sleeping, that slowly reshape the cornea over time to correct your myopia. When the lenses are removed, the cornea temporarily retains the new shape, so you can see clearly without the lenses.

Can Myopia Be Cured?

Despite ongoing research, a cure for myopia has not yet been found.

Properly prescribed spectacles or contact lenses will enable a person with myopia to see clearly. Laser surgery to reshape the front surface of the eye can also help some people with myopia. Your optometrist can advise you about the latest developments and whether they would be suitable for you.

Can Myopia Be Prevented?

There is no certain prevention for myopia; however, recent research has found that some treatments may slow the progression of myopia. Research is continuing to determine whether these treatments can be safely used by children to help manage myopia.

Is Your Child Myopic?

Learn more about childhood myopia and control methods.

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