MYOPIA

Commonly referred to as nearsightedness, myopia is a condition that causes your distance vision to be blurry while you are still able to see clearly up close. This happens because your eyeball is slightly longer than average which causes a blurry image to focus on your retina. As you grow and age, your body is constantly changing along with your eyes which is why your prescription can change every year as you become more nearsighted. Myopia can easily be corrected with glasses, contact lenses, or surgical procedures. On your eye glasses prescription, you know you have myopia if there is a minus sign in front of the number and the higher the number the more nearsighted you are.

Myopia is a very common condition, however very high amounts of myopia can become problematic as it can put you at a greater risk for many other eye conditions. This is why new areas of research have been focused on a topic called myopia control. Myopia control aims to slow down the progression of myopia at a young age in order to prevent the development of very high myopia. Talk to your optometrist today if you are concerned with your child’s myopia!