Doctor, why does my child's new glasses feel uncomfortable to wear?

Tiantian (pseudonym), 7 years old this year, is in the first grade of primary school. When helping her child with homework, Tiantian's mother, Ms. Hu, found that he read books and wrote very close. She suspected that the child might be nearsighted, so she took him to the optical shop for examination and fitted him with a pair of 150-degree myopia glasses for both eyes. However, after Tiantian wore the glasses for a while, he kept complaining that his eyes were uncomfortable, so Ms. Hu quickly took Tiantian to the Aier Eye Hospital affiliated to Wuhan University for treatment.

After examination, it was found that Tiantian had pseudomyopia caused by over-adjustment. By resting and looking far away, he could relax and adjust his vision to normal, and he did not need to wear glasses at all. Why did he wear myopia glasses when he was not myopic? After detailed investigation, the doctor found that Tiantian did not perform mydriasis refraction when he got glasses last time, which led to inaccurate refraction and he wore myopia glasses by mistake.

Cai Chunyan, associate chief physician, master's supervisor, deputy leader of the Strabismus and Pediatric Ophthalmology Group of Aier Eye Hospital Group in Hubei Province, and deputy director of Strabismus and Pediatric Ophthalmology of Aier Eye Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University , said that the ciliary muscles of children and adolescents have strong adaptability, and they often need the help of mydriatic drugs to accurately measure the child's degree. Especially when children have high hyperopia, myopia, astigmatism, resulting in amblyopia or even strabismus, they need accurate optometry to help with effective treatment.

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Why do we need mydriasis refraction?

Mydriasis optometry is called ciliary muscle paralysis optometry in medicine. It is an optometry test that uses drugs to paralyze the ciliary muscles of the eyes and lose their regulatory function. The accommodative power of adolescent eyes is strong. If ciliary muscle paralysis agents are not used during optometry, the regulatory function of the ciliary muscles can make the lens convex and the refractive power stronger, which may turn pseudomyopia into true myopia and affect the accuracy of the results. Therefore, mydriasis optometry is very necessary for adolescent myopic patients.

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Who needs mydriasis refraction?

1. All children should undergo mydriasis optometry for the first time.

2. Children under the age of 12 should have their pupils dilated for eye examination because their eyes have a strong regulatory function. If the pupils are not dilated, the error in the eye examination may be very large.

3. When teenagers have impaired or unstable vision and suspect pseudomyopia, they should undergo mydriasis refraction to rule it out.

4. Certain diagnostic optometry tests, such as when the fundus and refractive media are normal but the vision is poor, require a refractive examination to rule out problems related to refractive error, which requires mydriasis optometry.

5. For more complex refractive errors, such as high hyperopia, myopia, astigmatism, mixed astigmatism, etc., mydriasis refraction is required.

6. If the visual acuity correction under small pupil is not ideal, or is accompanied by vitreous opacities, the pupil should be dilated for refraction.

7. For patients with high hyperopia, since their accommodation ability is stronger, they should also undergo mydriasis refraction examination.

Zhou Chao, a member of the Medical Technician Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, a national first-level (senior) optometrist, and director of the Optometry Center of Wuhan University Aier Eye Hospital , said that mydriasis optometry is to obtain more accurate optometry results, which is convenient for doctors to formulate the next step of myopia correction plan and binocular vision function training plan. Generally, after a preliminary examination by a doctor, it can be determined whether mydriasis optometry is needed.

Dai Hongbin, chief physician, member of the standing committee of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Ophthalmology Professional Committee of the Hubei Provincial Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and director of strabismus and pediatric ophthalmology at the Aier Eye Hospital affiliated to Wuhan University, reminds that wearing glasses is not a trivial matter. When children have decreased vision, they should first go to a professional ophthalmology hospital for a "true or false myopia" examination. Parents should not fit glasses for their children without professional examination, so as to avoid "wearing glasses incorrectly" and affect their children's vision development.