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Advanced Myopia Control made easy and effective.
Available through Shattky Optometrists in Hastings and Waipukurau.
Myopia is expected to affect one in two people by 2050, becoming one of the world’s leading causes of permanent blindness.
If your child's glasses seem to be getting stronger every year, there is something important happening behind the prescription:
Their eye may be growing too quickly.
This is called Myopia, or short-sightedness.
We used to simply make stronger glasses as a child's myopia increased.
Today we can do much more.
At Shattky Optometrists we can measure the growth of your child's eyes and use Myopia Control treatments designed to slow that growth.
One of the newer options available is Repeated Low-Level Red-Light therapy — RLRL.
And the research behind it is increasingly compelling.
Myopia usually develops because the eye becomes too long from front to back.
We call this measurement the Axial Length of the eye.
As the eye becomes longer, the prescription becomes increasingly short-sighted.
More importantly, increasing levels of myopia are associated with a greater lifetime risk of eye conditions including:
This is why we no longer think of childhood myopia as simply needing stronger glasses.
Our aim is to slow down the excessive growth of the eye while your child is still growing.
The earlier we identify a child whose eyes are growing too quickly, the more opportunity we have to intervene.
Myproclear is a home-based medical device that provides Repeated Low-Level Red-Light therapy (RLRL).
The child looks into the device for a short treatment session:
with at least four hours between the two daily sessions.
That's it.
No contact lenses are required during the treatment and there are no eye drops or injections involved.
The treatment is performed at home, while your child's progress is supervised by our Optometrists.
RLRL uses a carefully controlled wavelength and level of red light directed into the eye.
Research suggests that this produces changes within the choroid — the vascular tissue underneath the retina — and may influence the processes controlling the growth of the eye.
The exact biological mechanism is still being investigated.
What matters clinically is what we can measure:
children receiving RLRL therapy have, on average, shown substantially less axial eye growth and less progression of their myopia than untreated control groups in clinical trials.
This is not simply about seeing the eye chart better today.
This is where RLRL has become particularly interesting in Myopia Control.
Published clinical trials have reported very strong reductions in myopia progression, with some studies reporting treatment effects of up to 87.7%.
More recent systematic reviews combining results from multiple randomised clinical trials have continued to find significantly less axial eye growth in children receiving RLRL compared with conventional single-vision spectacle correction.
But every child is different.
We don't promise that your child will achieve a particular percentage.
Instead, we measure their eyes and monitor whether the treatment is actually working for them.
A glasses prescription tells us how clearly your child sees.
Axial Length tells us how their eye is growing.
At Shattky Optometrists, Myopia Control isn't simply:
"Here's a treatment — come back next year."
We establish a baseline and follow the child's eye growth over time.
That allows us to ask the question that really matters:
If it is — great.
If it isn't — we can reconsider the strategy.
No.
And that is why the first step should be a Myopia Control Assessment, rather than simply choosing a treatment from a list.
Myproclear is designed for Myopia Control in children and is used under the supervision of an eye-care professional.
Before recommending treatment, we need to understand:
We can then discuss whether RLRL is the best option or whether another approach would suit them better.
Myproclear is a purpose-built medical device rather than an ordinary red-light lamp.
RLRL has now been studied in thousands of children.
Published clinical studies and systematic reviews have generally reported a favourable short-term safety profile.
Temporary after-images have been one of the more commonly reported effects. Rare retinal changes have also been reported in the scientific literature, which is one of the reasons we believe this treatment should be provided as a clinically supervised Myopia Control therapy, with appropriate examination and monitoring.
We assess your child's eye health before treatment and monitor them during their Myopia Control programme.
This isn't DIY red-light therapy.
It is prescribed and monitored eye care.
One of the advantages of having a full Myopia Control assessment is that we aren't tied to a single treatment.
At Shattky Optometrists our Myopia Control options include:
Repeated Low-Level Red-Light Therapy
Orthokeratology — Ortho-K overnight contact lenses
Myopia-control spectacle lenses
Specialist soft contact lenses
Atropine therapy where appropriate
And sometimes combinations of treatments.
For example, research is now investigating RLRL alongside treatments such as Ortho-K, particularly where eye growth has continued despite treatment.
Our objective isn't to put every child into the same programme.
What If My Child is Already Wearing Ortho-K?
This is particularly interesting.
Some children respond extremely well to Ortho-K, while others continue to show more axial eye growth than we would like.
Emerging research suggests that adding RLRL to Ortho-K may provide additional control of eye growth in selected children.
So if your child is already using Ortho-K but their Axial Length continues to increase, that does not necessarily mean we have reached the end of our options.
It may be worth reassessing their Myopia Control strategy.
Parents often tell us:
“Their prescription only changed a little bit.”
But prescription change is only part of the picture.
By measuring Axial Length we can see what the eye itself is doing.
If you have a child who is:
now is the time to measure their eye growth.
You don't need to decide whether your child needs red-light therapy.
That's our job to help you work out.
We can measure your child's eyes, explain whether their Myopia is progressing, discuss their individual risk and show you the different options available to slow it down.
If Myproclear RLRL is appropriate, we can then establish a treatment and monitoring programme for them.
Call us Now to book your child's Myopia Control & Red-Light Assessment with Shattky Optometrists.
116 Russell Street South
06 876 3777
36 Ruataniwha Street
06 858 9117
Kiwi's know that good things take time, so come to us, have the tests done without feeling that you have been "rushed thru", and you'll know what we mean when we say "we take the time!"
Book appointmentKiwi's know that good things take time, so come to us, have the tests done without feeling that you have been "rushed thru", and you'll know what we mean when we say "we take the time!"
Book appointment
