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One of the most commonplace causes for having spectacles is nearsightedness

nearsightedness is another word for shortsightedness. So a nearsighted person sees best when seeing up close, however when looking into the distance - struggles to focus. Nobody really understands why one person becomes shortsighted, there is likely to be a compounding of gene problems and environmental elements.

To be shortsighted or short sighted, the light ray that comes into your eye focuses too quickly as either the cornea or lens are too short or your eyes are too long..

Unlike many other aspects in life, shortsightedness tends to improve with time. Nobody is definitely sure as to why this is, but it may be the lens becomes stiffer with age and so can’t focus the rays of light so acutely. What then follows is the focal point of the light, becomes closer and closer to the retina.

shortsightedness affects about 25% of Americans.

Using a variety of techniques, trained opticians can assess whether or not a child is able to focus clearly. They use play, retinoscopy and refraction to help them do this carefully.

To assess the specific nature of your myopia, specific tests will need to be carried out to look at how well your eyes can focus on nearby as well as far away objects. Your eye movements will also be assessed as might your retina.

Since children are capable of over focusing, dilation can help the eye care practitioner determine a child’s true prescription due to the fact that the drugs used to dilate also impair this tendency to over focus. Over focusing can cause a child to appear to be myopic when he or she is actually not.

myopia is most commonly treated with spectacles or glasses. shortsightedness in preschool children does not need to be corrected with glasses, unless either anisometropia, a condition in which there is a difference of more than 1.00 diopters between the two eyes, or amblyopia, a condition in which a child cannot be corrected to 20/20 with spectacles, is present.

As the child enters school, distance vision becomes critical for learning, and children with prescriptions of at least 1.00 diopter of myopia or who have 20/40 vision or worse should be given specs. Once a child is diagnosed with myopia, he or she should be examined every six months to a year, and each eye should be corrected to 20/20 at each visit.

Apart from a few children with esophoria (not able to converge their eyes) nearsighted children must wear their spectacles as often as they can, otherwise they could do harm to their eyes.