Myopia

Myopia or short-slightness is a medical term used to describe a vision condition in which a person can see close objects clearly, but distance objects appears blurred. Therefore, children with myopia will have difficulty for seeing far, some examples are watching the TV screen, looking at the whiteboard in school or even bus numbers. As the degree of myopia progresses higher, the blurrier the individual’s distance vision.

Myopia occurs when the eyeball is too long (elongated) or the cornea (front surface of the eye) is too curved. Thus, light rays entering the eye will then be unable to focus correctly on the retina. (Myopia prevalent in Singapore). The exact cause of myopia is currently unknown but significant evidence shows that myopia can be inherited or that a child stands a higher chance of developing myopia if one or both parents are myopic. However, environmental factors may also play an influential part in myopia development. Many hours of intense near visual work such as computer and reading are a few common examples. Therefore, myopia progression may also depend on an individual’s visual habits.

Overall, myopia may first develop in school-age children, because the eye is constantly growing during this period of time. The growth of the eye ball typically progresses until about the age of 20. Myopia may also develop in adults due to stress on the visual system or health issues.

The most common way of correcting myopia is to be prescribed with a pair of glasses to realign the light rays in the eyes thereby resulting in clear vision. However, glasses only provide clear vision for the myopic eyes but does not address to the underlying problem causing the progression. Myopia, if not managed properly, can progress to high myopia and may result in higher risk of sight-threatening complication such as maculopathy and retinal detachment1,2.

But myopia isn’t just a blurry vision thing. More myopia means increasing lifelong risks of eye diseases like glaucoma, cataract, retinal detachment and myopic macular degeneration, and even low levels of myopia carry an additional risk.