The NaturalVue Multifocal contact lens by Visioneering Technologies, Inc, is a daily disposable contact lens for myopia control. This blog explores the optical profile, proposed mechanism and research evidence for the NaturalVue, along with its application in practice.
There are numerous reasons why contact lenses are beneficial for children, and the safety profile is high. Yet there are still barriers in the mind of the practitioner, parent and young patient to childhood CL wear. Here we address these often cited barriers, with the goal to support your clinical communication on the benefits and safety of contact lenses for kids, to move towards achieving a ‘yes’ from the parent and patient.
Here we focus on clinical advice comparing efficacy between available options which have been researched for myopia control. We also discuss best corrected acuity outcomes, and how MFCLs may influence accommodation, with this potentially linking to myopia control efficacy.
Here we provide clinical advice on considering astigmatism and add power choices, over-refraction and final lens power, and safety outcomes in myopia controlling soft contact lenses.
When it comes to contact lens corrections for young myopes, the impact of orthokeratology (OK) and multifocal soft contact lenses (MFSCL) on binocular vision is pertinent to visual comfort and understanding mechanisms of myopia progression and control.
Changing a myope from spectacle to contact lens wear can alter their binocular vision (BV) function. The myope reading through their spectacles experiences base-in prism at near, as demonstrated in the image above, which moves the image further away and decreases vergence demand.
When selecting an optical treatment for myopia management, contact lens options appear to be the most consistent, with OrthoK and multifocal soft contact lenses offering around a 50% efficacy for controlling refractive and axial change in myopia.1 And it’s not just the important benefit of modifying lifelong risk of vision impairment through successful myopia control which should be top of mind – contact lens wear for myopic children can offer significant immediate benefits to their self-perception and satisfaction with vision correction.
A key barrier to contact lens wear in children is parental and practitioner concern about safety. The research indicates, though, that children may be the safest contact lens wearers – here we describe the statistics and how to approach clinical communication.
Center-distance soft multifocal contact lenses have been shown to slow the progression of myopia,1-5 but practitioners around the world are concerned about the vision produced by soft multifocal contact lens wear in children.
This experimental design was primarily based on the peripheral retinal blur theory, that E. Smith developed,1 providing an incremental, progressive, refractive change from the central visual axis to peripheral retina, reaching a +2.00D add plus power at about 35 degrees of retinal eccentricity and achieving about +6.00D of addition plus power at the edge of the optical zone (4mm semichord diameter).
