Glasses to reduce progression of myopia

[snowgirl1]

DD (11 yrs old) went to the opticians last week. Her short-sightedness has got worse in the last year (from -1 to -1.5). The optician (a big chain optician) is recommending a lens which can help reduce the rate at which DD's eyesight will get worse. Has anyone done this? Any feedback?

The lens costs c.£220 and the optician says the edges can be blurry. I'm a bit concerned that I could shell out for these lenses and DD says she can't cope with the blurry edges. I also don't know if the lens will really make that much difference and it's just the chain optician trying to upsell.

Any feedback from anyone who's tried the lenses (or opticians!) would be much appreciated!

My 11 year old daughter has the myopia glasses, they're bloody expensive. But she's been wearing them 6 days a week for 10 hours per day with no problems. She's had them for a few months now. The optician said there's been a huge increase in children with this issue.

-1 to -1.5 isn't a huge change. Could you get a second opinion from another optician? I think there's some opticians/eye people on here that might have more experience that could give their opinion

@Whatapickle23 what is your dds prescription?

Agree. That’s a very tiny, mild prescription for an 11 year old and not much change to be honest. I am extremely short sighted (-9.50 both eyes) and I was wearing -4ish lenses by age 5. Personally I wouldn’t bother in your situation, if the lenses make the edges blurry I would imagine that would be really annoying as well.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I know a prescription of -1.5 is mild, but think we're going to try the lenses in the hope it will slow the progression.

Are these glasses only for kids? Do they work with adults? Do they only slow the progression? I take it nothing reverses it?

@NewspaperTaxis my DD has them. They only work while you're still growing and she has to wear them until she stops growing otherwise her sight will go back to what it would have been had she never had them.

She is 17, has worn glasses since she was in year 2 (probably needed them before then tbh, but we didn't know) and has had the Mysight lenses for about eighteen months. Her sight has got worse every appointment and was seen every six months until she was quite old. She was given a six month appointment after she got the new lenses and the optician was very pleased with how slowly her myopia was progressing now. She's due her next appointment in a couple of months, so we shall see, but her dad has a high prescription and it was worth it for us to slow her down as much as possible. I regret them not being available to her sooner.

DD has the Miyosmart lenses - they have little dots all over. She hasn’t complained of blurred edges or the dots at all. They do seem to have slowed the progression rate, her last prescription was only a little above the previous year whereas the year before (normal lenses) there was a bigger jump. Hard to be sure whether it’s due to the lenses of course. Yes they cost a lot.

I am -10 and really would like DD to avoid that, so it’s worth it for us.

I’m a severe myopic here. I think they need to be rapidly progressing under the age of 10 for it to become bad. If they are over that age when diagnosed with short sight, it very rarely progresses to be severe. I’ve 3 kids. Two are mid to late teens and don’t wear glasses. One was diagnosed in their early teens and has to wear lenses but not my level of myopia. All tested regularly as kids due to my eyesight.

Optician here. They are not upselling, they are offering you a product which is available and could reduce your child’s dependency on glasses in the future. You child is 10 and -1.50. Myopia still progresses well into 20s.
With every increasing diopter of myopia comes an increase in pathology risk with it. Myopes are more likely to get retinal detachments.
I would think more badly of an optician who did not offer it. Usually if your prescription does change in 6 months you get a free reglaze

https://reviewofmm.com/myopiacare-updates-online-myopia-calculators/

has a calculator where you put their age, their current prescription and it can estimate where your child may end up

My dd has just got some - before that we tried contact lenses but she struggled with them (age 10/11). She's had the glasses for two weeks and hasn't complained once (a miracle 😂). Yet to see how well it's all worked - only time will tell.

DS had them for the past 2 years, before them his vision was declining rapidly at every check up. He started at -1.5 at ended at -3.0 wearing standard lenses. His progression stopped completely with the lenses and at the last checkup he actually started to improve. He wears them interchangeably with myopia control contact lenses. For us they were worth every penny.

My son developed short sightedness at 10, he has been wearing mysight lenses ever since with not one change in prescription. Expensive but worth it I think

Also an optician, and I agree with PP.

I've not had a single patient come back with any complaints about the lens. There is a 2 week follow up questionnaire, and all of the ones I've done had been positive and not required further investigation.

My son developed short sightedness at 10, he has been wearing mysight lenses ever since with not one change in prescription. Expensive but worth it I think

Should have added my son is now 17

My ds has these lenses in his glasses. Prescription went from 3.5 to 5 in less than a year then got the preventative lenses and prescription is stable 18 months on. Still on 6 monthly checks to keep an eye on things but we're pleased. Lenses have lines in them but you can only see if you hold them up to a light at an angle.

Success here so far with my 9 yr old. Was getting worse every 6 months sicne age 5, but since having the myopia control glasses he's been the same for about a year. Early days but well worth it so far, definitely worth giving them a go.

My DD up until recently wasn’t wearing any glasses but at her last check up, the optician said she needed glasses. The optician suggested the MiyoSmart lenses. We decided to go with it even though she hasn’t had any experience with normal lenses to compare the difference. She has only been wearing them for one month and took to them easily, no problems at all.
Yes, only time will tell if it makes a difference, but even then I won’t know for sure if it is slowing the progression of short sightedness or not, as I won’t know what it would have been with normal lenses.

I did google lots about it and it has been proven to work in a trial they did on kids.

I would say go for it if you can afford it.

@catchingzzzeds that's fantastic for your DS!

@Pyaar yes I'm so pleased we went with the special lenses, well worth it. He has always worn the contact lenses (he really didn't want to wear glasses!) so it costs around £50 a month which is obviously a lot of money but they seem to have done their job

I had the contact lens version as an adult and it's basically stopped my deterioration which had been -2 to -4 in about 2 years

DD has these lenses and her myopia has hardly increased over the last two years. She adapted to them very quickly and we're really pleased her myopia isn't increasing the way mine did in my teens. I'm -12 in both eyes and my glasses cost £££s so would like to avoid this for DD if at all possible. I also had a detached retina probably because of my high prescription, and was lucky to keep some sight in that eye! I'd go for the lenses if you can.

My 9YO has had them for a while. She's not great at wearing glasses but has found them OK. So far they've largely prevented her myopia (which had been progressing) getting worse.

My 6 year old has had the MiyoSmart lenses for about 6 months now. He didn't seem to have any issues adjusting to them (I have looked through them myself and the blurring isn't noticeable). If you can afford it them easily, I would do it. For us it was a no brainer, as I was -9 (had laser surgery) and DH is -10, so the genetic odds are heavily stacked against our son, so we wanted to do all we can to slow the progression. As well as being annoying, high perscriptions increase the risks of retinal detachment and other eye conditions.