Tackling myopia management together
Eye care professionals (ECPs) all over the world need to address myopia, commonly known as near-sightedness.
Usually, the answer is simply to compensate it and in best cases to manage its progression. But while the condition is common-place, the impact of myopia should not be underestimated – in the most severe cases it can lead to sight loss1 and it is now globally recognised as a significant public health concern.2
At Menicon, we work hard to provide market-leading solutions that help improve the quality of life of our patients. We are concerned about the growing incidence of myopia. That’s why we’ve developed the Menicon Bloom Myopia Control Management system specifically to help ECPs address the global myopia epidemic and to improve patient engagement and commitment to treatment.
But first, what is myopia?
A major cause of vision impairment
Myopia refers to a refractive error in the eye, in which incoming rays of light focus in front of the retina rather than on it, which is usually due to the eye being too long for its refractive power.3,4 This causes blurred distance vision while near objects are usually clearly seen.
Myopia is considered to be present if the refractive error is equal to or greater than
-0.50D. High myopia is considered to be equal to or greater than -6.00D.
Unlike many degenerative eye conditions, myopia usually develops during childhood and worsens until the eyes stop growing, well into the teenage years.5-7
Moving towards a myopia epidemic
The need for new treatments has become more urgent in recent years because myopia’s prevalence is increasing. Currently, about one in three people (30%) have myopia worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this is predicted to rise dramatically to one in two people (50%) by 2050. The issue is so urgent the WHO has stepped in to support disease awareness.8
While myopia is often inherited from our parents, environmental factors can play a significant role in its development and progression. Lack of time spent outdoors, where in the world you live and even diet can cause or worsen the condition.9-10
The expected increase in myopia globally can be attributed to changes in lifestyle, such as increased time spent indoors and a rise in “near work” activities (such as reading, and gaming on portable devices), combined with a growing and ageing population.9-12
Preserving our sight
There could be long-term consequences for eye health if myopia isn’t managed early.
Higher levels of myopia are associated with glaucoma, myopic macular degeneration and retinal detachments. In the most severe cases, these conditions can lead to permanent sight loss.13-19
The importance of early diagnosis and treatment of myopia cannot be understated or underestimated. Active management of myopia is critical to minimising the risk of irreversible visual impairment. The World Council of Optometry has moved to address this and recently asked ECPs to pledge to adopt myopia management as a standard of care.
The good news is there are strategies we can employ now that can address myopia head-on. It’s reported that the greatest impact on eye growth and myopia progression occurs when treatment is started early and sustained over a longer period.20 This is because it has a cumulative impact on the eye during the phase when it would be growing.21
A unique solution – Menicon Bloom Myopia Control Management system
The Menicon Bloom Myopia Control Management system delivers this intervention.
It has been developed as a holistic solution, using a collection of high-quality tools. From the specially designed Menicon Bloom™ Easyfit software to help ECPs fit the lenses and an app for patients to track their progress, to cutting edge myopia-inhibiting contact lenses suitable for children – it’s a unique toolkit designed to deliver safe, comfortable and effective treatment.
This system creates continuity over the long term, helping ECPs choose the most suitable lenses, fit them and follow up with patients, making it easy and convenient to monitor each case individually.
Paired with our support resources, we want to make it as easy as possible for ECPs to master the new system in a busy clinic. Our certification course provides everything ECPs need to know and ensures consistent, high-quality standards. A myopia prognosis tool is also available to aid ECPs when explaining the important clinical aspects to patients.
CE-approved myopia management lenses
At the heart of our Menicon Bloom™ treatment are our Day and Night lenses. Menicon Bloom Day™ are daily disposable soft contact lenses with an extended depth of focus design, and Menicon Bloom Night™ are orthokeratology contact lenses worn by the patient while they sleep.
These contact lenses have shown the ability to manage the growth of the length of the eye, slowing down myopia progression in young patients. Menicon Bloom Night™ has even been shown to significantly improve vision-related quality of life in comparison to children who wear spectacles.22
Both contact lenses are CE-approved, making Menicon Bloom™ one of the most comprehensive regulatory approved myopia care programs available today.
Menicon Bloom Night™
Our advanced orthokeratology night-time contact lenses temporarily change the shape of the cornea to help reduce myopic refractive error, so by the morning, the wearer’s near-sightedness has eased and there’s no need to wear lenses or glasses during the day.
To ensure comfortable and safe contact lens wear, Menicon Bloom Night™ lenses are manufactured in our unique hyper oxygen permeable Menicon Z material, which ensures optimal corneal oxygenation.
Several studies have confirmed the efficacy of Menicon Bloom Night™, showing significant changes in high-order ocular aberrations. Wearing the lenses has resulted in a well-established reduction in the axial elongation of the eye, due to the increase in positive spherical aberration, which refers to how the peripheral light rays bend.23-28
Through this mechanism, Menicon Bloom Night™ is indicated for the correction of refractive myopia and for control of myopia when prescribed and managed by a qualified ECP. It’s also available as Menicon Bloom Night™ Toric, which can be used in cases with higher levels of corneal astigmatism.
Looking after the lenses
It's vital that wearers follow a daily cleaning routine for their lenses to keep eyes healthy and to keep the lenses working optimally. To help with this process, Menicon Bloom™ includes two easy-to-use and very effective lens care products – Menicon Bloom Care™ and Menicon Bloom Progent™. Patients should clean and store their Menicon Bloom Night™ lenses in a clean lens case with fresh Menicon Bloom Care™ solution each morning. Patients should also use Menicon Bloom Progent™ regularly to remove proteins from the surface of the lens and to rapidly kill any micro-organisms that may have contaminated the lenses.
Menicon Bloom Day™
Taking inspiration from advanced camera optics, Menicon Bloom Day™ contact lenses use Neurofocus Optics® technology with extended depth of focus design to gradually and continuously change lens power from the centre to the periphery. This imposes myopic defocus on the peripheral retina, which triggers a slowing of eye growth. At the same time, it prevents simultaneous image formation on the retina for clear vision at all distances.
Menicon Bloom Day™ daily disposable soft contact lenses are indicated for the correction of refractive myopia and myopia progression control, for patients with a minimal astigmatism component.
For myopic patients, their families, and eye health professionals, contact lenses are a familiar device, making Menicon’s Myopia Control Management system familiar and effective.
Time to take charge of myopia
Now is the time to change how we address myopia. It’s essential that as responsible ECPs we must take a new approach that goes beyond corrective glasses and treats the cause.
Working together to slow the development of myopia, we can truly make a significant impact on the sight and eye health of the next generation. There’s no time to lose.
References
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2. WHO, The Impact of Myopia and High Myopia, 2015, accessed February 2023
3. Flitcroft DI, He M, Jonas JB, et al. IMI – Defining and classifying myopia: A proposed set of standards for clinical and epidemiologic studies. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2019;60(3):M20-M30. doi:10.1167/iovs.18-25957
4. Langis Michaud, Remy Marcotte, Patrick Simard, Mhamed Ouzzani Managing Myopia – One Child at a Time 2022
5. Goss DA, Winkler RL. Progression of myopia in youth: Age of cessation. Optom Vis Sci. 1983;60(8):651-658. doi:10.1097/00006324-198308000-00002
6. Hardy R, Hillis A, Mutti D, et al. Myopia stabilization and associated factors among participants in the correction of myopia evaluation trial (COMET). Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2013;54(13):7871-7883. doi:10.1167/iovs.13-12403
7. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/short-sightedness/
8. Holden BA, Fricke TR, Wilson DA, Jong M, Naidoo KS, Sankaridurg P, et al. Global Prevalence of Myopia and High Myopia and Temporal Trends from 2000 through 2050. Ophthalmology. 2016;123:1036–42.
9. Lingham, G., Yazar, S., Lucas, R.M. et al. Time spent outdoors in childhood is associated with reduced risk of myopia as an adult. Sci Rep 11, 6337 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85825-y
10. Genetic and environmental effects on myopia development and progression: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3930266/
11. WHO. (2019, October 8). World report on vision. World Health Organisation. Retrieved April 7, 2022, from https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241516570
12. https://www.who.int/news/item/08-10-2019-who-launches-first-world-report-on-vision
13. Flitcroft DI. The complex interactions of retinal, optical and environmental factors in myopia aetiology. Prog Retin Eye Res. 2012;31(6):622-660. doi:10.1016/j.preteyeres.2012.06.004
14. Tano Y. Pathologic myopia: Where are we now? Am J Ophthalmol. 2002;134(5):645-660. doi:10.1016/S0002-9394(02)01883-4
15. Vongphanit J, Mitchell P, Wang JJ. Prevalence and progression of myopic retinopathy in an older population. Ophthalmology. 2002;109(4):704-711. doi:10.1016/S0161-6420(01)01024-7
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17. Saw SM, Gazzard G, Shin-Yen EC, Chua WH. Myopia and associated pathological complications. Ophthalmic Physiol Opt. 2005;25(5):381-391. doi:10.1111/j.1475-1313.2005.00298.x
18. Ikuno Y, Jo Y, Hamasaki T, Tano Y. Ocular risk factors for choroidal neovascularization in pathologic myopia. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2010;51(7):3721-3725. doi:10.1167/iovs.09-3493
19. Tideman JWL, Snabel MCC, Tedja MS, et al. Association of axial length with risk of uncorrectable visual impairment for europeans with myopia. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2016;134(12):1355-1363. doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2016.4009
20. Myopia stabilization and associated factors among participants in the Correction of Myopia Evaluation Trial (COMET). Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2013;54(13):7871-788
21. Brennan NA, Toubouti YM, Cheng X, Bullimore MA. Efficacy in myopia control. Prog Retin Eye Res.2021;83. doi:10.1016/j.preteyeres.2020.100923
22. Santodomingo-Rubido J, Villa-Collar C, Gilmartin B, Gutierrez-Ortega R. Myopia control with orthokeratology contact lenses in Spain: a comparison of vision-related quality-of-life measures between orthokeratology contact lenses and single-vision spectacles. Eye Contact Lens. 2013;39(2):153-7.
23. Santodomingo-Rubido J, Villa-Collar C, Gilmartin B, Gutierrez-Ortega R, Suzaki A. Short- and longterm changes in corneal aberrations and axial length induced by orthokeratology in children are not correlated. Eye Contact Lens. 2017;43(6):358-363. doi:10.1097/ICL.0000000000000290
24. Lau JK, Vincent SJ, Cheung SW, Cho P. The influence of orthokeratology compression factor on ocular higher-order aberrations. Clin Exp Optom. 2020;103(1):123-128. doi:10.1111/cxo.12933
25. Lau JK, Vincent SJ, Cheung SW, Cho P. Higher-order aberrations and axial elongation in myopic children treated with orthokeratology. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2020;61(2). doi:10.1167/iovs.61.2.22
26. Cho P, Cheung SW. Retardation of myopia in orthokeratology (ROMIO) study: A 2-year randomized clinical trial. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2012;53(11):7077-7085. doi:10.1167/iovs.12-10565
27. Santodomingo-Rubido J, Villa-Collar C, Gilmartin B, Gutierrez-Ortega R. Myopia control with orthokeratology contact lenses in Spain: Refractive and biometric changes. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2012;53(8):5060-5065. doi:10.1167/iovs.11-8005
28. Chen C, Cheung SW, Cho P. Myopia control using toric orthokeratology (TO-SEE study). InvestOphthalmol Vis Sci. 2013;54(10):6510-6517. doi:10.1167/iovs.13-12527