New Contacts May Offer Hope for Children with Myopia

Although LASIK has proven effective in treating myopia (nearsightedness), children—among whom myopia is one of the most common vision problems—are not eligible for LASIK surgery because their eyes have not fully matured.

However, an innovative type of contact lens may slow the progression of myopia in children. The lenses are being developed by a joint team of researchers from the University of Houston’s College of Optometry and the Brien Holden Vision Institute in Sydney, Australia, and are based on eyeglasses that demonstrated the ability to slow the development of nearsightedness in children.

These glasses worked by refocusing the peripheral image onto or in front of the retina to provide clear vision. Standard treatment for correcting nearsightedness without laser surgery typically entails using corrective lenses to refocus the primary visual object backward or forward; researchers found that moving the central visual image onto the retina and leaving the peripheral view behind the retina can cause the eye to elongate, increasing the effects of nearsightedness.

The same principle used in creating the myopia-slowing glasses, which hit the market in 2010, will be used in crafting the contact lenses.

If you would like more information about myopia or are looking for an ophthalmologist near you, please contact The LASIK Directory.