Glasses for your nearsighted child.
Are single glasses enough to treat nearsighted vision?
What Are Single Vision Glasses?
When a child becomes nearsighted most are prescribed single vision glasses to correct their vision. These glasses have one lens power or two if there is astigmatism.
Single vision spectacles and single vision contact lenses have not been shown to slow the progression of myopia. In fact, they are often used as control groups in myopia management clinical studies. However, there are cases where single vision lenses are the best option for your child.
Progressive Glasses or PALs (progressive addition lenses)
Progressive glasses are designed for people mostly over 40 who need assistance seeing at multiple distances: up close, intermediate, and distance. They help the wearer simultaneously do up-close work (like reading a book), middle-distance work (like reading a phone), and distance work (like driving). They are prescribed when someone doesn’t want to wear correction for distance vision and then have to pull out reading glasses to help them read up close.
The efficacy of prescribing progressive addition lenses (pals) to children to slow the progression of nearsighted vision varies between studies1,2 and eye care professionals tend to prescribe other options that have more positive results like orthokeratology (ortho-k) contact lenses, multifocal contact lenses, or eye drops like atropine.
Many eye care professionals are waiting to prescribe glasses for the treatment of myopia until the myopia management designs become available in the United States.
What are the spectacle lenses for myopia management?
There are several lens designs in development specifically for myopia management that are showing early results to slow myopia progression.
One spectacle lens developed at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and recently commercialized in Canada has shown in a two-year study in children 8 to 13 to slow myopia progression by 60% compared to those wearing single vision lenses.3, 4 This lens is being marketed by Hoya Vision as the MiyoSmart and is not currently available in the U.S.
SightGlass Vision has a spectacle lens in development that is designed to slow the progression of myopia in children. The company received CE clearance in the European markets to commercialize their Diffusion Optics Technology (DOT) spectacle lens. Clinical trials are currently being conducted in the US and Canada that measure the progression of myopia over a 36 month period.
Benefits:
Glasses allow your child to improve their vision at school and home and when playing outside with friends.
Glasses provide stable, predictable vision correction.
Glasses are easier to take care of than contact lenses. There are many choices for children’s eyewear, so you should be able to find something that your child will wear.
Eyeglass frames allow your child to show their personal style.
Considerations:
Protective eyewear is important if your child is active in sports. It’s important to select glasses that are suited for the sport.
Kids are active and they may lose or break their glasses.
Children’s prescriptions change often and new lenses will need to be ordered.
Efficacy for Myopia Management:
The MiyoSmart lens has been shown to slow the progression by 60% compared to those wearing single vision lenses.3, 4
Ask your eye care professional what myopia management treatment option is right for your child.
Sources:
1 Cheng D, Woo GC, Schmid KL. Bifocal lens control of myopic progression in children. Clin Exp Optom. 2011;94(1):24-32.
2Berntsen DA, Sinnott LT, Mutti DO, Zadnik K. A randomized trial using progressive addition lenses to evaluate theories of myopia progression in children with a high lag of accommodation. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2012;53(2):640-649.
4 Lam CSY, Tang WC, Tse DY, et alDefocus Incorporated Multiple Segments (DIMS) spectacle lenses slow myopia progression: a 2-year randomised clinical trialBritish Journal of Ophthalmology 2020;104:363-368.