What is Myopia | Nearsightedness | निकट दृष्टि दोष क्या है? लक्षण, कारण और इलाज | निकट दृष्टि दोष क्या है इसका उपचार कैसे किया जाता है?

What is Myopia | निकट दृष्टि दोष क्या है? | Nearsightedness | What are its common symptoms and treatment? | निकट दृष्टि दोष में कौन सा लेंस प्रयोग करते हैं? | क्या निकट दृष्टि दोष ठीक हो सकता है? | निकट दृष्टि दोष का दूसरा नाम क्या है?

What is myopia? In this video, our SimpliHealth expert, an eye specialist at Mirchia’s Laser Eye Clinic, Dr. Anin Sethi, is talking about what is myopia (निकट दृष्टि दोष)? In addition, he has also talked about the common causes and treatment options available.

What is Myopia or Nearsightedness? | What causes myopia

In this condition, the patients can see near objects very clearly, like reading or cooking, but they face difficulty seeing far-sighted things. This is called myopia. In this, the primary abnormality is enlargement of the eyeball, or for some reason, the rays of light don’t focus on the retina; instead, the light rays focus ahead of it. 

What is Myopia? There may be many reasons associated with it like a high power of the lens in the eye, steepness in the pupil, or enlarged eyeball, which is commonly known as axial myopia. So in these cases, the rays of light focus ahead of the retina rather than on the retina, especially in far-sighted objects. 

However, if we see near-sighted things, the light rays are focused on the retina. Hence we see clearly. 

What are the causes of Myopia? | Can myopia be cured

Myopia can affect any age; In children, it may start from childhood and may occur at the age of 6-7 years.  Due to abnormal eye growth, the rays of light focus ahead of the retina. So this problem primarily starts with eye growth.  

It may commence at the age of 6-7 years and  as the child grows, the eye enlarges, resulting in the severity of myopia. It grows maximum up to 15-16 years; after that, its growth recedes. Later it stabilizes by the age of 18-20 years. 

Hereditary could be the second reason for developing myopia. Those parents who have myopia or wear specs to see far-sighted things, their child is also at risk of wearing specs or myopia. The third reason is the occurrence of more indoor activity. As we have seen in the last two years, due to COVID, children have their online classes, and with less outdoor activity, they start developing myopia conditions. 

Everyone has to wear specs with minus numbers. But if we increase the outdoor activity, we can certainly stop the increase in number in specs.

How Common Is Myopia?

Myopia is prevalent in Asian countries like China or Japan, but it is less common in Western countries. For example, its prevalence in India is 30-32%, with the overall population.

Can Myopia Causes  Blindness?

Pathological myopia is one category of myopia in which the specs number is more than -5 or -6. So in these cases, the eyeball enlarge. The abnormal shape of the eyeball or because of the growth of the eye, apparently makes the retina and its inner layers thin. Due to this, some shortcoming starts to arise, like CNVN ( Cordial Neovascular Membrane ), in which there is the formation of some mass at the center of the retina where light rays focus. CNVN results in gradual loss of vision.

The second reason is the stretching of the retina due to enlargement of the eyeball. It leads to the formation of holes in the weakened areas of the retina. Holes or tears in the retina may lead to dislodging of the retina and causing loss of eyesight.

The third thing is due to the thin retina, the contrast ability of the eyes reduce. The image formed by the eye is dull or the image is with less contrast. These are common problems observed with myopia. 

Can We Treat Myopia?

See, we can’t treat myopia like we can’t make bigger eyes small. But yes, we can remove the number of specs. There are many ways to do so, and we have other videos on our Simplihealth channel. Laser surgeries or lens-based surgery are two  most common methods to remove specs. In laser, we integrate the number of the lens of specs in the eye itself, so we do not need to wear specs. We do lens-based surgeries for patients where the laser is not possible or unsafe; We use ICL or implantable columnar lens, which is a very popular technique. You can read in detail in our other videos.

Get Rid of Your Specs 

So we talk about removing specs. If your children have a minus number of specs, we don’t consider operation for removing specs in children.  So what can we do at this age? 

One proven and successful method is to increase the children’s outdoor activity. They should play outside for at least 1 hour  to 90 minutes so that eye muscles relax and eventually it stops the growth of numbers in specs.

The second thing is we must restrict the indoor activity of children. Suppose they have online classes or need to do some homework on devices. Keep them at some distance from the eyes. For example, use a laptop or tv screen rather than a phone.

There is some technology, though not available in India. First, some ortho lenses are available, like contact lenses, which we need to wear at night; they alter the eye shape and help restrict eye growth.  Next, we have Dems technology lenses available in specs and contact lenses; they modify the image formed by the eye, slowing down the development of an increasing number of lenses. But these technologies are not readily available in India because the government does not approve of them.  

As soon as they get approval in India, we will readily use them. But increasing outdoor activity is the most successful method.

Apart from this, we have low-dose medicines like atropine. So we need to put one drop in both eyes at night for six months. This also helps in reducing the growth of the number in specs.

Bottom line 

Hope this introduction about myopia is helpful to you. If your children are wearing specs of minus number, there is no need for panic. Give specs to your children and observe how the number is increasing concerning growth. If it is rising faster, you must consult your ophthalmologist; they will give the possible treatment to the children.  

Wearing specs is not being handicapped; instead, it acts as a mediator to focus light rays on the retina. Neither your child has weak eyes, nor is there an issue in the growth. It is just that they have different eye sizes. So there is no need to panic. Wear your specs and consult your doctor.

Thank you.