IMC2019 Part 3 – Contact Lens Updates
Announcing Part 3 of 4 of exciting updates from the 2019 biannual International Myopia Conference! You’ll find links to parts 1, 2 and 4 at the end, however read on for updates on OrthoK, MYLO and MiSight!
Contact lenses
An Ode To My Retinoscope
In May 2019 the professional journal Contact Lens Spectrum published my bi-annual ‘Refractive Focus’ column, entitled ‘An Ode to my Retinoscope’.
Kids, contact lenses, dry eye and binocular vision
Only a minimal percentage of children are likely to suffer dry eye symptoms (4%) compared to 56% in adult contact lens wearers.(1) Teens may be more likely to report contact lens related dry eye than younger children,(2) and consideration should be given to any systemic medications which could exacerbate dry eye symptoms, such as acne medications and those taken for anxiety and depression.
What about the exophores?
While esophoria and myopia have a long-associated link,(1-3) exophoria must also be on our myopia management agenda. The punchline, up front – research has shown that of kids with intermittent exotropia, 50% are myopic by age 10 and 90% are myopic by age 20,(4) and we need to be extra wary if considering fitting a myopic child like this into contact lenses.
The esophoric myope and contact lenses
When it comes to contact lens corrections for young myopes, the impact of orthokeratology (OK) and multifocal soft contact lenses (MFSCL) on binocular vision is pertinent to visual comfort and understanding mechanisms of myopia progression and control.
Specs to contacts – what happens to BV?
Changing a myope from spectacle to contact lens wear can alter their binocular vision (BV) function. The myope reading through their spectacles experiences base-in prism at near, as demonstrated in the image above, which moves the image further away and decreases vergence demand.
Eight Myopia Mysteries (plus eight more!)
This article groups common clinical treatments in an effort to explore what we do and don’t know regarding myopia control efficacy. It highlights the need to balance the available evidence with emerging knowledge when discussing options for myopia control with patients and their carers.
Contact lenses for kids – paediatric, parent and practitioner psychology
When selecting an optical treatment for myopia management, contact lens options appear to be the most consistent, with OrthoK and multifocal soft contact lenses offering around a 50% efficacy for controlling refractive and axial change in myopia.1 And it’s not just the important benefit of modifying lifelong risk of vision impairment through successful myopia control which should be top of mind – contact lens wear for myopic children can offer significant immediate benefits to their self-perception and satisfaction with vision correction.
Contact lens safety in kids
A key barrier to contact lens wear in children is parental and practitioner concern about safety. The research indicates, though, that children may be the safest contact lens wearers – here we describe the statistics and how to approach clinical communication.
ARVO 2018 – Part 2
With over 10,000 attendees and thousands of research posters, papers and symposiums presented over 5 days, it was a mind blowing nerdy extravaganza. Here are a bunch of cutting edge research pieces which I posted to the Myopia Profile Facebook group at the time.
