How much myopia increase is normal in a year? Parents, please pay attention

Children with myopia cannot wait!

Every parent doesn't want their children to have even a little flaw, and the same is true for myopia. No parent wants their children to wear glasses early because of myopia. However, in real life, many parents are optimistic when they find their children are myopic.

Dealing with children's myopia - hesitation and wavering. Many children with severe myopia are caused by their parents' "wait and see" attitude.

According to statistics, 80% of children with high myopia suffer because of their parents' "wait". Some parents think that their children are still young and will correct their eyesight when they grow up. As a result, their children miss the best time for correction, and their eyesight becomes worse and worse until they develop high myopia. You should know that high myopia (myopia > 600 degrees) is a major culprit of eye complications. Eye diseases such as floaters, cataracts, retinal detachment, glaucoma, and vitreous lesions are all common complications of high myopia. Patients with high myopia should avoid strenuous exercise, otherwise it will increase the risk of causing retinal detachment and other diseases.

Three stages of myopia development

1. Pseudomyopia stage

In the pseudomyopia stage, if certain scientific eye training methods are used to relieve the spasm of the ciliary muscle and restore its regulatory function on the lens, the eyeball can be restored to its original state, blocking the development of myopia and preventing pseudomyopia from evolving into true myopia. If it is not well prevented and controlled at this time, it will cause the eye axis to grow and gradually evolve into true myopia. Generally, if parents can discover and deal with children's pseudomyopia in time, it can be controlled.

2. True myopia stage

The axial length of the eye of a patient with true myopia is longer than that of a normal eye. For a patient with myopia, the degree of myopia increases by 300 degrees for every 1mm increase in the axial length. Usually, myopia below 300 degrees is considered low myopia, 300 to 600 degrees is called moderate myopia, and more than 600 degrees is called high myopia. The characteristic of the development of myopia in adolescents is that it develops quickly, with an average growth rate of 75 to 150 degrees per year until the age of 18! Some have an annual growth rate of more than 200 degrees!

3. High myopia stage

As the axial length of the eye increases in adolescent myopic patients, the anterior-posterior diameter of the eyeball continues to expand. During the process of eyeball enlargement, the sclera and choroid can continue to grow according to the signal requirements inside the eye, but the retina cannot grow accordingly. In order to fit the enlarged sclera and choroid, many cracks will appear in the retina or lattice degeneration will occur in the peripheral part of the retina, causing early lesions for future retinal detachment.

How to effectively inhibit the increase of myopia?

At present, what can be used clinically for effective prevention and control of myopia is to increase the effective outdoor activity time and then limit the close-range eye load in the "prevention" stage. In the "control" stage, it is generally recommended to consider two aspects when a child is found to have myopia. The first is that the glasses should be able to see clearly after being put on, that is, the degree should be appropriate. The second is that after the glasses are put on, they also have a certain effect of inhibiting the progression of myopia. The glasses that inhibit the progression of myopia are currently more commonly used in clinical practice. Some frame glasses have some special optically designed lenses. For example, myopia correction lenses with peripheral defocus correction have been clinically proven to have the effect of inhibiting myopia.

Another method that is combined with the needs of children's lives is relatively widely used and has certain clinical experience, which is the orthokeratology method. Because orthokeratology lenses do not require glasses during the day, they can be worn at night when sleeping, thus getting rid of the inconvenience of wearing frame glasses during the day. This is considered in combination with the needs of children's lives, and it also has a good effect in inhibiting the growth of myopia.

Another one is low-concentration atropine which has been used in recent years. It is an eye drop that effectively inhibits the growth of myopia. In clinical practice, we often use two concentrations of 0.05 and 0.01. Generally, we use low-concentration atropine and recommend it for 1-2 years to help children through the fastest growth stage.

When children first develop myopia, it is mostly pseudomyopia, and this period is the golden period for correction. Many parents wait until their children can no longer see the blackboard before they start to pay attention to their children's vision. However, when children can no longer see the blackboard, they basically need to wear glasses with a degree of about 200, and some children have myopia of more than 500 degrees. If children just develop myopia, they can recover quickly if they are treated in time. However, once myopia is formed, it is a scourge, increasing by an average of 75 to 150 degrees per year! Early prevention, early detection, and early correction are more appropriate solutions to solve myopia in adolescents.