According to relevant information, the incidence of myopia among young people in China is the second highest in the world, and the number of people is the first in the world, and it is getting younger. The detection rate of myopia in primary and secondary school students is 53.8%, and in some special groups (such as students above high school) has been as high as 70% or more. Russia’s Shaanxi is also saucy!
What exactly is causing such a high prevalence of myopia among primary and secondary school students in China? I see a variety of parents of myopic children with varying degrees of misconceptions on my clinic. At the risk of being too critical, I would like to list the six major oddities I encountered in myopia prevention and treatment, and give “suggestions” respectively, hoping to give you some insight.
Strange phenomenon 1
People who should wear glasses do not wear glasses
Many parents are reluctant to give their myopic children glasses too early, thinking that wearing glasses will make myopia deepen, and once you wear glasses, you can never take them off, so try not to wear them.
Comment: Myopic patients who wear glasses unreasonably will cause two consequences: one is easy to visual fatigue, affecting learning; the second is that patients are often forced to squint in order to make their vision clearer, the upper and lower eyelids long-term pressure on the eyeball, very easy to astigmatism.
It can be said that wearing glasses after the eyes to see things clearly, effective relief of visual fatigue, but rather have the effect of slowing myopia deepening. The reason why some children will have myopia deepening after prescription glasses is mainly related to their high intensity eye use (studying, reading, looking at cell phones, etc.), not paying attention to eye hygiene, poor reading habits, and not directly related to wearing glasses.
Countermeasures: For adolescent patients with a certain degree of myopia, wearing the right glasses at the right time is an effective means to reduce visual fatigue and slow down the deepening of myopia. In addition, patients should also pay attention to eye hygiene, improve reading habits, and strengthen preventive health care work.
Strange phenomenon 2
People who shouldn’t wear glasses are wearing glasses
In the clinic, we often see a certain health care institution check the kindergarten, the three-year-old child’s vision 0.6, then notify parents that the child has a problem, very serious, go to XX places to check. After a “detailed” examination, the child was found to be 200 degrees of farsightedness, they gave the child a pair of 200 degrees of farsightedness glasses …… worse, actually went to do a series of so-called nD training!
Comment: After birth, the human eye will grow proportionally with the organs of the body. At birth, the transverse diameter of the eye is not much different from that of an adult, but the anterior and posterior diameters (eye axis) are very short. The eye axis of a newborn is only 16 mm, that of a 3-week-old toddler is about 19.5 mm, and does not reach the normal adult eye axis length (about 23 mm) until the age of 18. In other words, children are normally hyperopic! (this should be said three times here). As age increases, the eye axis gradually lengthens and the refractive state gradually progresses toward orthokeratology. Unfortunately, however, most parents do not understand this knowledge and blindly give glasses to children with normal vision. The 3-year-old child is supposed to be 200 degrees farsighted, obviously normal eyes, but wears farsighted glasses, and even go to do the so-called training, so do not push the child to the direction of myopia?
Countermeasures: In view of the current qualification of optometrists in China is mixed, many practitioners lack the necessary optometric knowledge, in order to avoid the occurrence of the wrong prescription, endangering vision, parents may wish to take their children to a comprehensive strength, quality of large general hospital ophthalmology examination and consultation.
Strange phenomenon 3
”Myopia”, only to think of “prevention”
Nowadays, there is a common situation in China: either to engage in universal prevention without a goal, or to wait until the child has become myopic, and then think about prevention. In my clinic, many parents complain, “Doctor, our child’s vision has always been good, why is he suddenly myopic?”
Comment: Myopia does not happen “suddenly” overnight. The main reason why parents are not aware of their children’s myopia is that most parents do not have the awareness to take their children to the hospital for regular eye examinations, so they cannot detect their children’s vision problems at an early stage.
The solution: Parents are asked to create a refractive developmental profile for their children. This is done by going to the hospital for dilated eye exams and eye exams every 6 months, starting with children as young as 3 years old. Record the values of optometry, eye axis length, radius of corneal curvature, intraocular pressure, height, weight, etc.
The benefits: one can be early detection of eye refractive abnormalities, such as high hyperopia, myopia, astigmatism and amblyopia, two can be early detection of infants and children with eye diseases; three can be in the normal vision of children, screening out myopic “blanks”. For example, an 8-year-old child should have 125-150 degrees of hyperopia and a visual acuity of 1.0. If the refractive status of an 8-year-old child is found to be 75 degrees of hyperopia or orthopia, it means that the child has a higher probability of becoming myopic in the future, and intervention measures must be taken in time to prevent the occurrence of myopia.
Note: Because children’s eyes are highly regulated, they require pupil dilatation. Many parents have doubts about dilated eye exams, fearing that the medication will harm their child’s delicate eyes. In fact, the medication used for dilated eye exams is not harmful to the eyes, and some of it is even used to treat myopia.
Strange phenomenon 4
The first thing you need to do is to save time with your glasses.
Myopia glasses should be shallow, see good; astigmatism is too much trouble, long, can save; optometry is a small thing, why go to the hospital so much trouble ……
Comment: These are the wrong optometry concept. Under the misguidance of these ideas, many people wear unsuitable glasses, not only easy to occur visual fatigue, but also accelerate the deepening and development of myopia. Imagine what will happen if a child’s feet of 36 are given a pair of 35 shoes when they change extremely fast during development?
Countermeasure: We must vigorously promote medical optometry. The degree of the lens is not equal to the data of the optometry, but must be correctly prescribed according to the medical performance of both eyes, such as the state of the eye position, the strength of the adjustment function and the axial axis of astigmatism. This is the essence of the difference between medical optometry and ordinary optometry.
Odd phenomenon 5
Superstitiously believe in “anti-myopia” products, ignoring “environmental” improvement
Many parents of myopic children are eager to find a quick and easy cure for myopia or medication. The clinic often encounters parents who say, “Doctor, see how you can cure my child’s myopia, and spend as much money as you want!”
In addition to the endless myopia prevention products on the market, which cater to this psychology of parents, business is booming.
Comment: Is there really a panacea that can cure myopia? The answer is no! Because the causes of myopia are complex, comprehensive measures must be used to prevent and control, there are no shortcuts. To date, there is no drug or device that has been proven to cure myopia.
Modern medicine has proven that genetics, perinatal care and poor environmental factors are the three major factors contributing to the development of myopia. In terms of realistic operability, the latter two, especially interventions for adverse environmental factors, will help stop or delay the development of myopia. Unfortunately, many parents today prefer to spend a lot of money on various nutritional products and therapeutic devices, but do not know how to “lighten the load” of their children’s eyes and do not focus on improving the various adverse environmental factors that can easily harm vision, putting the cart before the horse.
Countermeasures: To prevent myopia, start by improving environmental factors. Specific measures include.
①Mother more exercise, give the baby a healthy set of eyes. Nowadays, many mothers-to-be in the pregnancy, immediately “promoted” to “national treasure pandas”, household chores do not do, and some even do not even go to class, every day in addition to sleep, is to eat. The mother does not know that less movement will affect the baby’s eye development, which will easily lead to the baby’s eyes are not round (astigmatism), eye tissue is not strong enough (easy to expand, myopia) and other problems.
Don’t let babies use their eyes too early and excessively, because the walls of the baby’s eyeballs are weaker, and premature and excessive use of the eyes can lead to excessive expansion of the eyeballs and early elongation of the eye axis, laying a hidden danger for myopia.
③ Don’t let children read in strong light, dark rooms or shaking carriages, and schools should make appropriate classroom lighting, table and chair modifications.
④ Read and write with correct posture, head straight, eyes 30 cm from the book, fingertips 2 cm from the pen tip, do not lie on the bed or lie on the table to read.
⑤ Participate in more outdoor activities and have one physical education class every day.
⑥Avoid prolonged eye fatigue, and take a break for 10-15 minutes after 1 hour of continuous study.
⑦Don’t order eye drops indiscriminately, so that the preservatives contained in them don’t harm your eyes.