Myopia Management

Myopia Management

According to the American Optometric Association, at least 34% of children ages 12-17 are myopic or near-sighted. By 2050, myopia is expected to affect at least 5 billion people globally. This is due in part to changing lifestyles, with children spending less time outdoors and more time focusing on close objects like digital screens.

The goal of myopia management is to reduce the abnormal eye growth and elongation. The usual treatment for myopia is eyeglasses and standard contact lenses. While these help the child see better, they do not slow the progression of myopia. By using MiSight 1 day contact lenses, Dr. DiGeso can help slow the progression of your child’s myopia and reduce their long-term risk of developing severe eye diseases more common in high myopia patients, such as macular degeneration, retinal detachment, and glaucoma.

MiSight 1 day is the first and only FDA-approved treatment for myopia progression, using a daily soft disposable lens with a special design. This design serves a dual purpose, to correct the prescription and to slow down the progression of myopia by utilizing peripheral defocus to reduce the elongation of eye that occurs with myopia. Treatment is most effective when started between the ages of 8-12, because those are the years where myopia progresses the fastest.

Ortho-K (gas permeable lenses) and Atropine drops are other myopia management strategies. They are both off-label treatments and are not currently offered at our practice. Ortho-K lenses are hard lenses that are worn overnight to change the shape of the eye. Atropine drops dilate the pupil and cause some blurring, especially at near.

MiSight 1 day is backed by a 7-year clinical trial where it slowed myopia progression in age-appropriate children by 59% on average and 41% of eyes had no progression. Those children that did progress only did so by less than -1.00D on average over 6 years. We sometimes see that change in children after 6 months! At Year 7, there was no evidence of rebound in mean axial length elongation – treatment gains were retained over 12 months after treatment was stopped.

Myopia management is a specialty service that is not covered by insurance. However, we have developed an annual program that covers the cost of all the visits and year supply of contacts. Treatment duration is on a case-by-case basis, but typically lasts between 3-6 years.
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• Please contact our office at 908-725-0144 to schedule a MiSight 1 day consultation for your child. You may also visit the MiSight 1 day website and YouTube channel for further information.