The importance of eye exams and follow-ups

The importance of eye exams and follow-ups

You might have noticed that there are more and more children with glasses in your kid’s friends and their classroom. Indeed, myopia is on the rise globally and is predicted to affect 50% of the world’s population by 2050.

There are many reasons for this, but one of them is the significant changes in lifestyle linked to our modern lives. For example, your children may spend more time indoors working or studying in front of a computer or tv screen rather than playing outside. Time spent in these high-contrast environments could be linked to the prevalence of myopia worldwide.

But it’s not always easy to notice that your child is becoming myopic or having trouble with their eyesight. This is why being aware of the signs and symptoms of myopia at home is essential, as is scheduling regular eye exams with an eye-care professional.

What is an eye exam?

There are several different types of eye exams.

Eye exams and vision screening: are they the same?

No, a vision screening and an eye exam are two different things.

A vision screening can be done at your child’s school by nurses or another healthcare provider, which can help monitor your child’s vision without the medical tools and assessment an eye doctor would use. In addition, they can help monitor your kid’s vision throughout the year.

If the nurse or the healthcare provider notices signs of troubled vision at the eye screening, they could refer you to an eye-care professional.

Both the vision screening and the eye exam will seek to check your children’s visual acuity.

What to expect during my child’s first eye exam

Your child’s first eye exam should happen when they are still an infant. The eye-care professional will first enquire about the birth history, seeking to know if your child was full term, if there were any complications during pregnancy, your child’s weight at birth, and so on…

They will enquire about your family history of vision issues. This is particularly important as many eye diseases, such as myopia, can be hereditary. Indeed, if you have myopia, your child will be more at risk of developing myopia. This should prompt you to schedule regular eye exams because if your kid develops myopia when they are young, they might be more at risk of having high myopia in adulthood.

Also, the eye-care professional will want to know if you have noticed any particular symptoms of an eye-sight issue in your child.

When should you schedule an eye exam and their follow-up?

Your eye care professional will recommend how frequently you should schedule eye examinations. It may be more frequent to manage progressive conditions such as myopia.

Have regular eye exams during their childhood years.

Here is what will likely happen during your children’s eye exams throughout their childhood.

The eye-care professional will always check their eye health, the prescription of the eye, and their visual acuity. As your children age, the eye-care professional might challenge them during their vision exam with vision charts with pictures and even letters to read out loud later on.

Urgently, if they have symptoms of eyesight troubles

If, however, you notice symptoms of eyesight issues in your child, such as trouble seeing things far away, headaches, frequent rubbing of the eyes, squinting, or a shortened attention span in class, you should make an appointment with your eye-care professional as soon as possible.

Why are eye exams so important?

Checking your children’s eyesight every year and being on the lookout for symptoms of eyesight issues is an integral part of their well-being. In addition, these can help detect early some conditions  such as:

Hyperopia:

Hyperopia, or farsightedness, occurs when your child can see far-away things clearly but may struggle to see at near. This may also potentially affect the alignment of the eyes, with one eye turning in toward the nose.

Myopia:

Myopia is one of the most well-known eye diseases by parents. It’s when your child can’t distinguish far-away things properly when objects and signs appear blurry.

This is caused by an elongated eyeball shape, which prevents the light entering the eye from focusing on the retina correctly. This causes far-away objects to appear blurry.

This is a particularly complicated issue as it can be progressive, and the number of myopics in schoolchildren worldwide is growing. In addition, myopia can progress year after year in some cases and can lead to sight-threatening complications in adulthood.

My child’s eye exam revealed an eyesight issue; what should I do?

If your child’s eye exam revealed any eyesight issues, there are several steps to take.

Schedule regular follow-up exams:

Eyesight can change quickly during childhood, so it is essential to closely monitor potential eyesight problems, especially one as progressive as myopia can be.

Make sure to schedule regular eye exams at least annually or every 6 months if needed with your eye-care professional. In addition, be aware at home of signs of eyesight problems.

Fit them with new glasses or contacts:

While specific eyesight issues, such as myopia, can’t be cured, there are ways to try to slow down progression, such as fitting your child with Diffusion Optics Technology™ (DOT) lenses:

Thanks to tiny microdots in the lens, Diffusion Optics Technology™ (DOT) lenses scatter the light entering the eye, softening contrast. They are therefore designed to slow down myopia progression by managing contrast.

They have had clinically proven(1) results in children aged 6-10, with 2 out of 3 kids participating in the study having no meaningful myopia progression* after one year of use.

A practical, adaptable solution designed to manage your child’s myopia progression.

Conclusion:

Regular eye exams and follow-ups are crucial to your child’s proper vision development. They can help spot vision issues early on, prompting your eye-care professional to prescribe the correct lenses to manage your child’s condition, such as our Diffusion Optics Technology™ (DOT) lenses, which have been clinically proven to help reduce myopia progression.

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(1) Joe Rappon, Carol Chung, Graeme Young, Christopher Hunt, Jay Neitz, Maureen Neitz, Thomas Chalberg: Control of myopia using diffusion optics spectacle lenses: 12-month results of a randomised controlled, efficacy and safety study (CYPRESS)

*No clinically meaningful change in refractive error means that there was less than a 0.25D increase in myopia from baseline as measured by cycloplegic autorefraction (p<0.0001)