Myopia (nearsightedness) is occurring in children more frequently, at a younger age and to a greater degree than ever before. Unfortunately, childhood myopia leads to a high prescription come adulthood, resulting in thick glasses or a dependence on contact lenses.
Myopia control is a type of physical therapy for your child’s eyes and is designed to slow down the progression of myopia. Early intervention is crucial to keeping the prescription from climbing, preserving your child’s uncorrected distance vision.
Elite Vision Therapy Centre offers a variety of myopia control treatments for your family. For more information about myopia control request an appointment for your child today.
Myopia may increase as a result of an elongated eye, where the focal point falls in front of the retina. This is often genetic. Another cause of myopia progression is visual fatigue and stress on the eye from too much near activity and not enough time outdoors. This is the likely cause of the increase in incidence of childhood myopia abundantly seen today. Myopia control treatments exercise the eye muscles, allowing for small changes to the eye’s overall structure or focusing process to reduce eye strain.
There are three methods of myopia control used at Elite Vision Therapy Centre:
Distance glasses are the most common treatment for childhood myopia. Although they will improve your child’s distance vision and allow them to see the blackboard in school or the television, they can actually make it harder for your child’s eyes to focus on things close up, causing strain. Multifocal glasses and contact lenses, have different corrective powers throughout the lens, allowing your child to see clearly at distance with a lesser power at near to alleviate eye strain or visual fatigue. This in turn prevents their prescription from increasing too quickly.
Ortho-K is a form of myopia control for children where they wear rigid gas permeable contact lenses overnight while they sleep to slowly, gently change the shape of their cornea, reducing their prescription. Over time this reshaping will gradually correct your child’s myopia. These lenses are designed to be removed in the morning, with the new corneal shape being maintained throughout the day, letting your child see clearly without having to wear glasses or contact lenses for school, sports or any other activities.
For more information about Ortho-K lenses please visit the Ortho-K Lenses page.
Low-dose atropine eye drops are another form of myopia control for children, recommended by Elite Vision Therapy Centre. These drops are administered to your child on a daily basis to reduce eye strain and slow the progression of myopia. The drops temporarily reduce the eye’s ability to focus at near, relaxing the eyes and controlling myopia. Side effects include slightly dilated pupils.
Located on Scarlett Road in Etobicoke, just south of Eglinton Avenue W. and across from the Humber River, Elite Vision Therapy Centre is centrally located to achieve your primary eye care and vision therapy need.
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM |
| Wednesday | 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM |
| Thursday | 8:30 AM - 7:00 PM |
| Friday | 8:30 AM - 2:00 PM |
| Saturday | 8:30 AM - 2:00 PM |
| Sunday | Closed |
