Earliness of appearance
The sooner the myopia appears, the more important and evolutive it will be.
Myopia
Difficulty seeing at distance and you don’t want to wear glasses or contacts anymore? Even if you have another visual impairment, there are several laser or implants techniques to restore your vision.
What’s short-sightedness/myopia?
Short-sightedness is a very common eye focusing disorder that affects your distance vision. You can see objects that are near well but have trouble viewing objects that are far. It has been on the rise for several decades. It is estimated that by 2050, nearly half the people in the world will have short-sightedness.
How is short-sightedness/myopia diagnosed?
Short-sightedness is easy to diagnose. At the Bellecour Vision Clinic, you’ll go through a comprehensive assessment, which will allow the Doctor David Donate to choose the most appropriate surgical technique for you and to check the absence of contraindications. Testing for myopia may use several procedures to measure how the eyes focus light and to determine the power of any optical lenses needed to correct the reduced vision.
As part of the testing, you will identify letters on a distance chart. This test measures visual acuity. Using an instrument called a phoropter, the optometrist places a series of lenses in front of your eyes and measures how they focus light using a handheld lighted instrument called a retinoscope.
Or the optometrist may choose to use an automated instrument that evaluates the focusing power of the eye. The power is then refined based on your responses to determine the lenses that allow the clearest vision. Your doctor can conduct this testing without using eye drops to determine how the eyes respond under normal seeing conditions.
The preoperative consultation will include:
- Measurement of your visual defect to be corrected by refraction analysis
- The verification of your director eye
- The complete ophthalmic assessment with measurement of the intraocular pressure, examination of the fundus and the analysis of the transparency of the lens
- The corneal topography (analysis of the corneal morphology)
- Aberrometric examination analysis of the optical quality of the eye
What causes short-sightedness/myopia?
Myopia occurs if the eyeball is too long or the cornea (the clear front cover of the eye) is too curved. As a result, the light entering the eye isn't focused correctly, and distant objects look blurred. If you have myopia, more than likely at least one or both of your parents did, too. Eye experts are still unsure of the exact cause of myopia, but believe it to be a mix of hereditary and environmental factors.
It’s possible that you can inherit the ability to be myopic and then if your lifestyle produces just the right conditions, you’ll develop it. For example, if you use your eyes for a lot of close-up work, such as reading or working on a computer, you may develop myopia.
What are the short-sightedness/myopia symptoms?
If you are short-sighted, you may notice:
- Faraway objects look blurred or fuzzy while close items appear clear. People with myopia can have difficulty clearly seeing a movie or TV screen, a whiteboard in school or while driving.
- Headaches/eyes train/squinting
- Tiredness when driving, playing sports or looking more than a few feet away.
Some additional symptoms of myopia to watch for in your children include:
- Poor school grades
- Shortened attention span
How does short-sightedness/myopia evolve?
Myopia evolves differently from one person to another depending on different factors:
Degree of myopia
High evolutive myopia (axis superior to 26 mm, prescription higher than 6 diopters), can evolve for a long time and cause severe visual impairment.
Life habits
A mild myopia can worsen a lot by spending too much time doing up-close activities, such as reading, doing computer work, playing video games or spending too much time on a smartphone. Eye experts believe that your focusing muscles may get stuck in “near gear” from overusing them this way. The best way to keep control on your myopia is to adopt good visual habits.
When should you get myopia surgery?
Legally, you must be over 18 to get refractive surgery, but age is just a number. Your measurements, stability, and ocular and medical history, all play a much more important role in determining your candidacy. It is important that the graduation be stable during the last year for the treatment to be effective in the long term. Otherwise, if after surgery your cornea evolves, you will need a second operation or you may have to wear glasses or contact lenses again.
In Bellecour Vision Clinic, we will perform a series of very rigorous preoperative tests. The objective is to be as safe as possible that the result of the operation will be stable. That is why you should try not to use too much your screens (like tablets, smartphones, video games…).
This could increase your myopia, even after surgery. If you have to use screens very frequently, you should develop the habit of taking a visual break and follow the 20/20/20 rule:
- Take a 20 second break
- Every 20 minutes of close work
- Gaze at objects at least 20 feet away
In principle there is no maximum age for myopia refractive surgery. In fact, if ever you had other visual defects (presbyopia, cataracts…), we could treat same as well at the same time, during the same surgical procedure.
How is myopia/short-sightedness corrected?
De nos jours, il existe plusieurs méthodes éprouvées qui permettent au chirurgien de trouver la méthode adaptée à chaque patient. Il existe deux familles de traitements en fonction de la santé de votre œil, du degré de myopie et de vos attentes : les traitements par laser et les traitements par implants.
What are short-sightedness/myopia complications?
There are two types of myopia depending on the eye’s length:
- Simple myopia: it is the most common myopia, generally less than 6 diopters of myopia. The eye structure is normal.
- Severe/high myopia: it can exceed 20 diopters and some parts of the eye (especially the posterior part, choroid and retina) are abnormal and fragilized what requires a regular medical supervision.
People with near-sightedness have a higher risk for a detached retina. This is when the tissue lining the back of your eye lifts away or separates from the eye wall. It is a serious eye problem that can cause blindness. The more severe your near-sightedness, the greater your risk. People with severe near-sightedness also have a higher risk of developing glaucoma, cataracts, and other eye diseases.
How is myopia/short-sightedness corrected?
People with myopia have 3 options available to regain clear distance vision. They include:
Eyeglasses
The most popular way for most people to correct myopia is with eyeglasses. It is the less invasive and the cheapest solution to regain a good vision. Depending on the degree of vision correction needed, you will wear eyeglasses either daily or only for when distance vision is needed. A single-vision lens will make distance vision clearer. But patients over 40 who have myopia may require a bifocal or progressive lens to see clearly both near and far.
Contact lenses
Some people find that their distance vision is sharper and wider with contact lenses. It is more aesthetic, invisible and gives you more freedom for sports. A potential downside is they require more care to keep clean. They are expensive and if they are not worn and cleaned properly, they can damage your cornea. If you wear lenses, you will need a regular medical supervision.
Refractive surgery
For adults only, there are several types of refractive surgeries that can also correct myopia definitely. Depending on your expectations, your myopia degree and the health of your eyes, we can use lasers or implants to help you regain (or gain) a clear vision without glasses or contact lenses.
What are the different surgical techniques to treat myopia?
Laser procedures such as PRK, LASIK and SMILE are possible treatment options for myopia. People who are highly nearsighted or whose corneas are too thin for laser procedures may be able to have their myopia surgically corrected by implanting small lenses with the desired optical correction in their eyes
What are the different laser techniques to treat myopia?
There are several surgical techniques used to treat myopia: notably PRK, LASIK, SMILE, and intraocular lenses. The best technique for you will depend on the topography and thickness of your cornea and the severity of your myopia.
PKR
First, we remove the most superficial layer from the centre of the cornea, then we apply the laser to the surface of the eye to correct the visual impairment.
Lasik
The Femtosecond laser first creates a thin corneal flap, then we use the excimer laser to treat the visual impairment.Le SMILE
The laser cuts a disc-shaped piece of corneal tissue from inside the cornea to correct the visual impairment.
How to treat short-sightedness with intra ocular phakic implants (ICLs Staar)?
For many patients, we can correct the visual impairment by implanting an intraocular lens into the eye. There are many different types of implants, each adapted to a particular function; however, we prefer to use the ICL STAAR intraocular lenses, which provide excellent accuracy in visual correction and guarantee maximum safety.
We carefully place the lens behind the iris through a small self-sealing incision in the edge of the cornea. This corrects both weak and severe myopia, with or without astigmatism, and it also treats hyperopia.