Clinical

Communicating with an ophthalmologist about orthokeratology

How do you manage your young patient when their ophthalmologist appears to have advised parents against orthokeratology? How should you communicate with the ophthalmologist about orthokeratology? This clinical case explores the aspects of safety, efficacy and benefits, including detail on the comparison of short-term risks of contact lens wear with the long-term risks of myopia. With open communication lines, you may find it’s not quite the challenge you thought it would be.

Keys to Communication Myopia Management

Keys to Communication in Myopia Management

Communicating the reasons, benefits and options in myopia management can be complex. Using pictures in health communications has been shown to improve patient attention, recall and comprehension of information and adherence to treatment. The Managing Myopia Guidelines Infographics are designed to guide you through the process of explaining myopia control using simple messaging and pictures. We explain the four key messages of myopia management here.

Dry Eye in Myopia Management

Dry Eye in Myopia Management

Dry eye is a common complaint in general optometry, and can occur in children too. How could dry eye in kids influence myopia management? This blog includes detail on the frequency of dry eye in children; causative factors like allergy, medications, binocular vision and screen time; and how dry eye can factor into myopia control options.

Gauging success in myopia management

How can you tell if your myopia management strategy has been a success? Our new Myopia Profile ‘Managing Myopia Guidelines’ infographics translate research into practice, providing advice on gauging success by both refraction and axial length outcomes. Given that refraction is universally measured in clinical myopia practice, there is particular emphasis on understanding how much refraction change after a year of treatment indicates whether expected efficacy for that intervention has been attained.

Measuring near lag of accommodation

Assessing accommodative function, such as measuring near lag of accommodation, is a vital component of understanding the myopia profile of your patient. In this post Dr Kate Gifford describes how to measure accommodation lag in practice.

Pseudomyopia

How to achieve accurate refractions for children

Ensuring an accurate refraction is a hallmark of best practice myopia management. Yet refractions in children can present particular challenges. Which technique is most accurate, and when is cycloplegia necessary? Covering acuity measurement, retinoscopy, autorefraction and when and how to employ cycloplegia – here are some tips to achieve the best outcomes, especially for younger children where compliance and participation in testing can be more challenging.

Is orthokeratology useful for control of low myopia?

There’s a common clinical belief that orthokeratology doesn’t work as well in lower myopes for myopia control. This is even sometimes included in conference presentations as prescribing advice. Is orthokeratology useful for control of low myopia? Here’s what’s fact and what’s fiction, when considering its efficacy for low vs high myopia, and orthokeratology vs multifocal contact lens myopia control.

Myopic Epidemic all the screens

Is screen time to blame for the myopia epidemic?

Children are accessing screens at school, around the home and for personal entertainment at younger and younger ages. At the same time, there has been an unprecedented increase in myopia in children, with higher numbers and earlier age of onset. Read about what we do and don’t know about this link; the impact of screen time on binocular vision and dry eye in kids, and guidelines for advice to parents.

How to identify and manage pre-myopes

If our goal is to manage myopia, preventing its onset should be an even more valuable target. How can we consistently identify pre-myopes, explain the concern to parents, and how can we best manage them based on the evidence?