Myopia, or nearsightedness, is a refractive error that occurs when your eye does not properly focus light on the retina. This focusing of light is called refraction. In order to see clearly, the light rays must travel through your lens and cornea, which then reflect the light, so it lands on your retina.
The retina works to turn the light into signals that are sent to your brain and turned into images. When you have myopia, the eyeball is longer than normal. This means the light will not focus on the retina properly, which leads to blurry vision. This eye lengthening can progress if left untreated.
At Dittman Eyecare, we offer our myopic patients OrthoK lenses, soft multifocal contact lenses, and low-dose atropine. When determining the best treatment plan for your child, we consider their age, the refractive error they are presenting with, the steepness of the cornea, and their desire to wear contacts.
Low-does atropine is used for children who are very young, do not want to wear contacts, or those who have a major refractive error or astigmatism. For those with a very flat cornea or a refractive error less than -2.00D, we recommend soft multifocal lenses for comfort and effectiveness. OrthoK lenses are often recommended for patients between -2.00D and -6.0D and have a slightly steep cornea.
Since offering myopia management, Dittman Eyecare has placed its primary focus on parent education to ensure they understand the importance of myopia management. Our main goal is to capture the children that are at a high risk based on their refractive error and are under the age of six.
We want to ensure parents are aware of myopia management when their child is two, and either both or one of the parents is highly myopic. This gives us the option to talk about lifestyle changes to prevent myopia and the potential need for myopia management.
To help better educate parents about myopia management and help keep communication open about myopia for all patients, Dr. Dittman started the Myopia Matters Club. This is a separate branch within our office to demonstrate our expertise to parents and throughout the community.
There are two programs that patients can enroll in within the club. There is the club itself which is for when we are actively starting myopia management treatment—this enrollment lasts for two years. We do not base our fees on a specific treatment type. This provides patients with a variety of treatment options that they won’t feel forced to choose based on cost. The two-year term allows us to help parents commit and get better results for their children.
We also offer the Observation Club for a smaller fee. During a patient’s annual exam, we measure the patient’s axial length (axial length is the measurement of the length of the eyeball) and include that in the club’s price. We then schedule the child to return in six months for another evaluation and a repeat of all the measurements.
This allows us to enroll children who are at a high risk of becoming myopic or for the parents who are not ready to begin myopia management and being to evaluate any changes and form a growth chart for the child. This will allow us to see the progression and help us determine the best course of action.
To learn more about myopia and how you can help your child’s eye health, contact Dittman Eyecare today!