Myopia

According to recent research, the prevalence of myopia in Asian countries reaches 70%-90% of the population, 30%-40% in Europe and America and only 10%-20% in Africa. The percentages of people with myopia increase with educational attainment.
25% of the world’s population is nearsighted. In Greece, 36.8% of adolescents between 15-18 years old have myopia.

Myopia is a refractive abnormality that allows only close objects to be seen well, while distant ones are blurred. The eyeball of people with myopia is more elongated, so light rays from distant objects are focused in front of the retina, instead rays from close objects are normally focused on the retina. More rarely, myopia is due to increased curvature of the cornea and crystalline lens.

Myopia is divided into:

• Mild, up to -3.00dp
• Moderate, from -3.00dp – 6.00dp
• High, from -6.00dp and above
Myopia usually appears at the onset of puberty and as the child grows the size of the eyeball increases and this results in an increase in myopia. Myopia does not stabilize when the child’s growth stops.

How is myopia treated?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning about lasik surgery to correct myopia.

The best and safest neutralization of myopia is done with glasses or contact lenses. State-of-the-art lenses with special thinning and coatings allow myopics to wear particularly appealingly myopic glasses .
Contact lenses are especially indicated in cases where the two eyes have a difference of myopia equal to or greater than 4.00dp (anisometropia), when they engage in sports, when myopia is too great or when it is combined with astigmatism.

The ideal way to reduce the increase in myopia and/or stabilize myopia is to use rigid gas permeable contact lenses. The daily use of rigid gas permeable contact lenses for myopia minimizes the increase in myopia while neutralizing astigmatism, if any, offering vision far superior to soft contact lenses as well as ideal corneal oxygenation (rigid gas permeable contact lenses have a small diameter).

The Optometrist is the expert scientist for the perfect application of these lenses.