The evolution of soft contact lens design from myopia control has come from presbyopia designs to a variety of options today. The newest design is concentric annular zones with noncoaxial relative plus power, called RingBoost technology. The aim is to deliver a high level of relative plus power for increased myopia control efficacy with minimal visual impact – learn more here.
Dr Carolyn Lederman, ophthalmologist from the United States, explains how she prescribes and manages myopia patients with the NaturalVue Multifocal 1 Day contact lens in her practice.
A dose-response is where an increasing amount of a medication or intervention is correlated with a better clinical outcome. When it comes to myopia control, we investigate the evidence for a dose-response with spectacle, contact lens, atropine and outdoor time interventions.
Extended depth of focus (EDOF) designs in soft contact lenses are employed for presbyopia correction as well as myopia control. This article explores differences between contact lens designs which could be termed ‘multifocal’, and how this could factor into clinical outcomes.
Two prototype myopia control soft contact lens designs with non-coaxial optics showed enhanced efficacy in one design and enhanced vision in the other, compared to dual-focus and single-vision designs. This initial data is for six months, and all myopia control contact lens designs showed close to 6/6 or 20/20 acuity equivalent.
This study showed that multi-zone spectacle and contact lenses used for myopia control provide myopic defocus at far distances. At near, changes in accommodative lag, pupil miosis and spherical aberration in individuals may mean there are lesser amounts of myopic defocus and reduced image quality. However, all the lenses were still able to provide sufficient image clarity at near for typical size print.
Different designs of soft myopia control contact lenses have different impacts on the accommodation response, sitting alongside previous research which relates this to efficacy. The measurement technique used for accommodation also influences the outcomes.
In young adult myopes, Biofinity centre-distance +2.50 Add and NaturalVue multifocal contact lenses both showed reduced visual acuity in lower lighting and low contrast conditions, and especially with a glare source, compared to single vision. Reading rate under normal lighting was also reduced by 4-8%. The multifocal designs performed similarly, although Biofinity required more over-refraction for best distance acuity.
Estimates on the lifetime cost of myopia management options have shown that although the financial cost is higher in childhood, the cost of staying with traditional non-treatment single vision options is higher over a lifetime.
In myopic children, interventions to slow progression are warranted to prevent the development of high myopia and subsequent pathology and also to reduce the economic burden caused by uncorrected and pathologic myopia. This IMI Report describes the latest advice on preventing the development and progression of myopia – read the summary here.
