Myopia
Myopia, commonly referred to as “short-sightedness” or “near-sightedness”, describes when your distance vision is blurred but your near vision is clear. Symptoms include difficulty seeing objects in the distance like the TV and road signs, glare and starbursts around streetlights or headlights at night and, in children, having difficulty viewing the whiteboard from a distance in class. Myopia can impact your ability to drive safely, recognise faces, see the scoreboard for sporting events, enjoy live theatre and your current Netflix show. It can also affect children and teenagers ability to learn and their sporting performance.
Myopia results as the light coming into the eye are not focused perfectly on the retina. Instead, as the eye is often longer than expected, the light focuses in front of the retina, leading to blurry vision. The good news is the distance blur caused by myopia is easily improved with glasses and contact lenses. And if stable and a low to moderate amount, by laser vision correction.
Myopia typically develops in childhood, but the age of onset is getting younger. It develops due to a combination of genetic and lifestyle factors.
Myopia is getting more common. While vision is improved with glasses and contact lenses, myopia does increase the risk of some eye diseases later in life; this is a crucial reason regular eye exams are essential for myopes and also a reason Myopia Management is important in younger age groups.
