You can now have myopia control for children with contact lenses! MiSight is the first disposable contact lens that reduces the progression of myopia in children aged 8 to 12 years. FDA approved this contact lens in 2019. [LEARN MORE]
MiSight has changed the way we manage myopia progression in children. It is an FDA-approved product that is very successful in achieving its objective.
About MiSight contact lenses by CooperVision
MiSight is a disposable soft contact lens, and it is a single-use daily lens. This means that the child will discard the lens at the end of every day. It is not intended for overnight use. By slowing down the progression of myopia, it also reduces the risks of developing various other vision problems later in life.
MiSight is a unique and revolutionary product, and it can help alter the lives of those with myopia. To understand why, we need to learn a little more about the condition itself.
Is myopia a common problem?
More than 60 percent of children in Singapore are myopic by the age of 12. This number is also growing more and more rapidly. The problem is more prevalent in school-going children. Over the past five to 10 years, there has been a significant rise in myopia issues in children.
More than 60 percent of children in Singapore are myopic by the age of 12. This number is also growing rapidly. The problem is more prevalent in school-going children. Over the past five to 10 years, there has been a significant rise in myopia issues in children.
Also, 81% of professionals agree that this vision problem is one of the most significant ones impacting modern-day children’s eyesight. It’s crucial to address myopia in children as soon as possible. This is not something that will get fixed without professional intervention.
What causes myopia?
There are various factors that explain the upward graph of myopia in children today. In most cases, it is a combination of these factors:
• Genetics. The eyesight history of the family plays a crucial role in a child’s potential risk of myopia. If even one of the parents is myopic, there is a 3x chance of the child developing myopia. If both the parents are myopic, the chances are sixfold.
• Environment. Exposure to sunlight and the time that a person spends outdoors will affect chances of being myopic. Vitamin D intake and dopamine level are also important. Research indicates that spending more time in outdoor areas reduces the risk of myopia in children.
In other words, myopic parents will have higher chances of having children with myopia. And chances of becoming highly myopic increase, as children stay more indoors and use digital devices for many hours every day.
Myopia condition typically develops in childhood, when kids are still growing, and their eyeball is also developing and changing in shape.
The problem of myopia is widespread. And the consequences are not just blurred vision at distance. Myopia, and especially high myopia, triggers vision issues like cataract and detached retina.
How does myopia occur?
Myopia occurs when the eyeball grows excessively long. When this happens, the image entering the eye gets focused just in front of the retina instead of on it. It blurs the vision while viewing objects that are far away, and the person would need corrective lenses.
Children with near-sightedness or uncorrected myopia will experience blurred vision when they attempt to see something at a distance. This makes it very difficult for them to carry out everyday activities. For example, they may have a tough time seeing the board in school. They will also face other difficulties such as participating in sports activities and watching movies.
This condition can progress throughout childhood, requiring lenses that have stronger corrective ability. If parents ignore this vision issue in the early stages, it can result in more significant risks in the future.
The risks of myopia when left untreated
A large majority of eyecare practitioners agree that if myopia is left untreated in children, it will increase as children grow. In turn, high myopia increases the risks of not reversible vision problems and even loss once they are older.
Even kids with mild prescriptions have a much higher risk of retinal detachment and glaucoma compared to non-myopic kids. That risk significantly increases as their prescriptions get even stronger. As mentioned earlier, the progression of myopia is also linked to various sight-threatening conditions later in life, such as:
Some studies estimate that by 2025, 5 billion individuals will be myopic. The increasing prevalence of myopia makes it even more urgent to address this vision problem early on. This is why we feel parents must understand what myopia is and why early intervention is crucial.
How MiSight works
To date, contact lenses only offered correction for impaired vision. They would not slow the progression of myopia. CooperVision developed MiSight 1 day lenses specifically to address this limitation. This is how MiSight works:
- The eyes can detect when an image is out of focus when the light reaches the retina.
- In kids, this situation sends signals for their eyes to grow bigger to compensate for the lack of focus.
- The growth of the eyeball occurs over time. However, this causes a significant increase in myopia resulting in a vicious circle for many children.
- MiSight lenses have a zone of focus, and this is very different from standard contact lenses for short-sightedness.
- They allow the light reaching the retina to have a different focus (referred to as defocus).
- The defocus inhibits signals that stimulate eyeball growth, suppressing the increase in myopia safely.
- Children need to wear MiSight contact daily to correct near-sightedness.
- They help to slow the progress of myopia in kids with healthy eyes.
- When kids place these contact lenses on the eyes, one part of them corrects the refractive error, improving distance vision. This is similar to standard contact lenses.
- Also, MiSight lenses have concentric peripheral rings that focus a portion of the light right in front of the retina.
- This helps to reduce the stimulus that causes the progression of myopia.
Are MiSight contact lenses safe?
The FDA approved MiSight, based on extensive data from a clinical trial as well as real-world evidence. Four clinical sites conducted the trial. The effectiveness and safety of MiSight was studied in a controlled and randomized clinical trial.
This trial indicated that myopia progression in kids wearing MiSight lenses was lower than kids wearing traditional soft contact lenses. Also, the subjects that used MiSight had much less change in the eyeball axial length at every annual checkup.
During the trial, no serious ocular adverse events showed up in both the arms of the study. The study results showed that myopia decreased with MiSight lenses when compared with conventional contact lenses.
Features of MiSight contact lenses
- Designed for kids that have a myopic prescription ranging from -0.25D to -6.00D
- It features ActivControl technology that reduces myopia progression
- It is proven to reduce myopia by almost 59% after wear of three years in children
- Convenient and hygienic one-day wearing schedule
- Preferred over spectacles by children 9:1
ActivControl technology uses dual zones for myopia correction and management
- Optical zone that works on ActivControl technology
- One optic zone has two correction zones (called a refractive correction)
- The lenses have two treatment zones (they have 2 diopters of myopic defocus)
- The myopic defocus controls refractive error or axial elongation, because the image will be placed in front of the retina.
Get MiSight at Visio Optical
At Visio Optical, we have experience in fitting contact lenses for children. Our optometrists have the ability to assess various other factors of myopia progression, including focusing difficulties and binocular vision.
Check out CooperVision MiSight 1 day at Visio Optical. LEARN MORE ABOUT MISIGHT