Whether you’re a kid or an adult, myopia isn’t something anyone wants to have.
Fortunately, there are several different myopia treatment options available.
However, it’s worth looking into each of them before going all-in on one of them because some of them are permanent.
Definitely take the time to read through this article and do your research before signing up for anything irreversible.
And if you want any additional guidance, don’t be afraid to reach out and contact us or your local eyecare professional.
1. Glasses
This is the first and most obvious go-to myopia treatment for most people, and you may well already have a pair of glasses if you’re reading this.
In fact, you’re likely wearing a pair of glasses as you’re reading this.
Glasses are really the easiest thing on this list to talk about, and they’re also the most common solution because they’re easily accessible everywhere, non-invasive, and require no surgery or risk of eye damage.
If you develop myopia, regardless of what else you do, you should get yourself at least one good pair of glasses so that you have a backup at least.
And remember to properly take care of your glasses so they last as long as possible.
2. Contacts
After glasses, this is the second most common myopia treatment that people go for.
Like glasses, contacts are corrective lenses that help you see clearly while you’re wearing them.
Unlike glasses, they go directly on your eyes.
Yes, as you probably already know, you place contact lenses in your eyes using your finger, and they remain there for as long as you want to see clearly.
Then, just as with glasses, you take them out once you don’t need to see clearly anymore.
Usually, this is just before you go to bed.
However, it is good to remember that wearing your contact lenses for too long could cause irritation and other problems, especially if you don’t properly lubricate your eyes.
3. Orthokeratology
Now we get into the more interesting stuff.
When it comes to myopia treatment options, Orthokeratology, or Ortho-K for short, is the best non-surgical alternative to glasses and contact lenses.
Essentially, it involves getting assessed by an optometrist for a pair of specialized contact lenses.
But these contact lenses are not the kind that you wear during the day.
Ortho-K lenses are worn at night while you sleep, and then you take them out when you wake up.
While you are sleeping, they gently change the shape of your corneas (that’s the lens part of your eyeball) so that, when you wake up and take them out, you can see clearly without wearing glasses or contact lenses.
The main draw of Ortho-K is that it delivers the same benefits as laser eye surgery without carrying any of the risks of laser eye surgery. And they’re safe for kids, too!
4. Implantable Contacts
And this is where we start to explore the surgical myopia treatment options.
First on the surgical list is Implantable Contact Lenses.
Essentially, as the name suggests, they are contact lenses that are surgically implanted into your eyes between the iris and the natural lens of your eyeball.
While they are a surgical option, they may or may not be permanent.
If your eyes change and you require a new prescription, Implantable Contact Lenses can be removed and replaced.
5. LASIK
Advertised as the premier permanent surgical myopia treatment solution available, LASIK is laser eye surgery.
During the surgery, a surgeon cuts a flap into your corneas to peel them back so that the laser can beam into your eyeballs and do what it does to correct your vision.
It’s usually pretty quick, but we won’t say that it’s comfortable.
And while it works out for a lot of people, it’s not entirely without risk.
So, do a lot of research, get multiple opinions from different optometrists, and talk to people who have gotten LASIK to hear about their experience and get any advice you can from them.
LASIK is permanent and irreversible, so make sure it’s the right thing for you before you go in for the surgery.
6. PRK
This is the other main surgical option for myopia treatment.
It’s probably less common than LASIK, but it’s essentially the same thing, with the exception of one major difference.
Whereas LASIK involves cutting a flap into the cornea and then putting it back so that it can heal over time, PRK involves a solution being placed on top of your cornea to dissolve part of it before the actual surgery is performed with the laser.
It takes longer to heal from than LASIK, but the upside is that you don’t get the flap at the end.
This is one of the main reasons some people choose PRK over LASIK, because the corneal flap never fully fuses back with the rest of your eyeball.
Conclusion
Having vision problems is unfortunate, and we all wish it didn’t happen.
But there are multiple myopia treatments available for you to choose from, and we encourage you to do a lot of research into each of them.
Some are “temporary” while others are permanent, and some require a small amount of daily effort from you to keep up with them.
Whichever one you choose, we wish you all the luck in the world, and we hope that your myopia treatment is very successful.
But as a closing note, we would recommend that you try all of the non-permanent and non-surgical options first before signing up for the surgical ones.
