Welcome to Eyecare Insights with Dr. Kyle Tate, your Jenks eye doctor. Today we’re in a new series about myopia control. If you’re interested in myopia control reach out to your Jenks eye doctor. We treat patients of all ages from babies to grandparents and everyone in-between. We offer everything from basic complete dilated eye exams to diabetes eye exams. We treat pink eyes, red eyes, dry eyes, and many other things. Your Jenks eye doctor at Insight Eyecare is located 1 mile off the Creek Turnpike, Highway 75 and 177 near the Glenpool IHOP. Located in our clinic we have an optical boutique with almost 1,000 frames to meet all eyeglass wants and needs. Your Jenks eye doctor partners with the finest labs, offering the best lenses and frames available. Our team at Insight Eyecare wants to be your Jenks eye doctor for all your eyecare and eyewear needs.
Today article is part one of a series about myopia control. Myopia control is a hot new topic with lots of research even since I finished school. It is important to understand the progression that we are trying to stop. We are not trying to take away your glasses and contacts. We have other solutions like Lasix for that. Will have multiple parts in the series. As your Jenks eye doctor, today I will define and describe myopia or nearsightedness. We will talk about the different methods of myopia control in the future. We will talk about different treatment options the benefits and risks involved. We will also figure out which type of person should be looking for myopia control.
So what is myopia? Your Jenks eye doctor wants you to understand that myopia itself does not hurt the health of the eye. But progressively large amounts of myopia can hurt the eye. Myopia is when the eye focuses light too strongly and it comes to a focus point in front of the retina. This causes distance vision to be blurry. Myopia allows good near vision even though the distance vision is blurry. High levels of myopia are associated with increased risk of cataracts, retinal detachments, glaucoma, and a reduction in quality of life. When you see somebody with eyeglasses that are thicker on the outside edge than they are in the center, that is someone who is nearsighted. The greater the nearsightedness, the thicker the lens. These glasses’ lenses make them heavier which will weigh down on a patient’s nose. This causes irritations to the skin which can even rub the skin around the nose raw from eye pads on glasses.
As your Jenks eye doctor, I want you understand that the vision of a nearsighted person is helped by glasses, but the glasses can cause many types of distortions and blurs in his or her vision reducing the overall quality of vision. What I mean by quality of vision is that they might be able to see something, but there are lots of blurs and distortions that can cause glare; they can cause what they are looking at to appear smaller. Nearsightedness can be improved by contact lenses as well. These can be soft or hard contact lenses, and can give better vision in highly nearsighted people than glasses. This is due to the fact that the contacts will not introduce as many distortions as the glasses will. If you know someone who is nearsighted, come send them to their Jenks eye doctor at Insight Eyecare. We can help them meet their current needs, we can discuss their future, and we can demonstrate how to protect the eyes.
Myopia is a burden on life. Commonly patients will discuss with their Jenks eye doctor how they do not feel safe to wake up in the night in an emergency and function without their glasses. So we see a quality-of-life burden along with the financial burden of myopia. By definition myopia is a disease. What causes the disease of myopia? We are continuing to study and find the source from the latest research in eye care. We know there are definite genetic causes, so if one or both of a patient’s parents were nearsighted they are at a higher risk of nearsightedness. We also know the more time somebody spends inside and reading close-range sources like a tablet a laptop or computer – even on a phone or a book – the more likely they are to be nearsighted. It’s important to remember that small amounts of myopia or nearsightedness are not a risk to the health of the eye. But by definition when the prescription to improve the myopia is -3.00 or greater then we know that the risks of eye problems and loss of vision increase. During this series about myopia control we’re going to discuss ways in which someone who has just developed some myopia can reduce the overall amount their eyes will deteriorate in life.
Let’s review what we’ve learned here. As your Jenks eye doctor, we want you to understand that nearsightedness is a slang term for myopia. We know that myopia focuses focus light too strong where it comes directly in front of the retina. This causes distance vision to be blurry while near vision is clear. That is where the term nearsightedness came in as a slang term for myopia. Your Jenks eye doctor prescribes glasses and contacts that will clear myopia from a patient’s vision. At Insight Eyecare your Jenks eye doctor will check the health of every patient’s eyes with a dilated eye exam and help evaluate for things such as cataracts and glaucoma or macular degeneration. We know that previous studies did not have any answers for myopia control. As your Jenks eye doctor we stay on top of current research, trying to be as knowledgeable as we can to best serve our patients.
If you know anyone who has myopia, or if you experience myopia, you need to reach out to your Jenks eye doctor to make sure you’ve had a dilated eye exam where we can discuss your myopia and what effects we can control. At Insight Eyecare we want all of our patients to have the best vision possible for their entire life. When you need a Jenks eye doctor, come to us at Insight Eyecare. Our welcoming staff, state-of-the-art facility, advanced equipment, and eyeglasses boutique are all designed to give you a positive experience and improve your life. Remember your Jenks eye doctor at Insight Eyecare treats all types of common diseases; exams and treatments for nearsightedness, myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, cataracts, glaucoma, allergies, dry eye, and diabetes. Come see us at Insight Eyecare; we hope to improve your life. God bless you guys have a great day.
