Winter break is coming, don't forget to give your eyes a rest and physical examination

With the changes in the epidemic prevention and control situation, schools have successively opened the winter vacation mode. While letting go of themselves, parents should not forget to let their children take a holiday for their eyes. Ophthalmologists remind that the winter vacation time is short, if your child has already developed symptoms such as blurred vision, crooked head, squinting, etc., please take him to a regular hospital as soon as possible. Mydriatic refraction and pupil recovery take time, do not wait until the school is about to start, and then rush to the doctor, affecting the child's learning progress after the start of school.

At the same time, in the prevention and control of myopia, parents are sometimes in a hurry, asking for fish, not knowing how to do it, and there are still some "stubborn pits" that everyone will always step on. Today, ophthalmologists came to take parents to fill the pit together.

Pit 1:

Children only need to check their eyesight after they go to school

Many parents believe that after their children go to primary school, they need to check their vision when they use their eyes a lot. In fact, after the age of 3, most children can cooperate with the visual acuity test after learning to recognize the vision chart, and they can carry out preliminary vision examination. It is recommended to conduct a vision screening for children every three months to six months, and schools or parents can purchase a standard eye chart to hang on the wall and let the child identify it at a distance of 5 meters.

In ordinary life, if parents find that their children are looking obliquely, tilting their heads, squinting, rubbing their eyes, or watching TV and books very close, they should be vigilant, which may be a problem with vision. Parents should take their children to regular medical institutions in time to establish refractive development files for their children. The start time of the examination is preferably no later than 3 years old, which is helpful to find eye diseases and refractive abnormalities such as myopia, astigmatism, high hyperopia, strabismus, etc. as soon as possible, screen out the "dangerous molecules" of myopia, prevent and control the progress of myopia in time, and intervene early.

Pit 2:

Small child + low degree = pseudomyopia

Many parents often blurt out when they hear about their children's myopia: "Is it false or true?" Many people believe that children are small and not high, that is, pseudo-myopia, which is reversible. In fact, pseudomyopia refers to the temporary loss of vision caused by excessive use of the eye at close range, the tension of the ciliary muscle adjustment of the eye, and after rest or application of ciliary muscle paralysis drops, vision can return to normal. However, in the routine hospital examination, if the myopia has been dilated and the degree of myopia is checked, it is no longer pseudo-myopia. Even if the child is young and the degree is not high, it is no longer a pseudo-myopia that regulates tension.

Therefore, when the child's vision declines, it is very necessary to go to the regular hospital for mydriatic refraction in time. Pseudomyopia can be ruled out by mydriasis, and for most myopic children, choose rapid mydriasis refraction that can recover spontaneously in 4 to 6 hours.

Pit 3:

Glasses look far away and don't wear them close

Normal eyes and glasses (the right degree) of myopia to see close to the eye need to be adjusted, by adjusting to change the focal length of the eye, the light focus point from a distance to the close object we are looking at, this can see clearly.

Myopia In the case of not wearing glasses, the focal length of the eyes is close, and the eyes can be lazy to see clearly without adjustment. However, the adjustment function of long-term lazy eyes will decrease, and it will also affect the ability of the eyes to cohesive.

Under normal conditions, when you look close, your eyes will face each other inward to a certain extent, which is the cohesion function. In addition to the special situation that the doctor has explained that he can not wear glasses, other times it is recommended that children with myopia wear glasses when they look far and near.

Pit 4:

The more glasses you wear, the faster myopia deepens

True myopia is irreversible after dilated pupils if detected. Most myopia is caused by the growth of the eye axis, which refers to the distance from the anterior surface of the cornea to the retina of the fundus on the light pathway into the eyeball, just like the "height" of the eyeball. Children who are still in physical development, without intervention, the eye axis will continue to increase with physical development. Therefore, the degree of myopia will not decrease, but will continue to deepen.

We can't make the developing eye grow backwards, just as we can't make a taller person shorter. Therefore, the deepening of myopia is not due to wearing glasses.

Moreover, not wearing glasses can increase the burden on the eyes and may further stimulate an increase in myopia. Therefore, wear glasses of the right degree to correct vision. And with the growth of the eye axis, the degree of myopia increases, to replace the appropriate glasses in time, it is recommended to carry out an optometry examination every six months.

Pit 5:

Laser surgery can cure myopia

Some parents believe that myopia is not a serious disease and can be cured by laser surgery in adulthood.

From a visual point of view, no matter how many degrees of myopia can not be ignored. Because more than 85% of people's information acquisition comes from the visual system, low and moderate myopia will affect vision, and wearing glasses will bring inconvenience to life. The high degree of myopia, especially pathological myopia, should be given more attention, and its fundus retina may have lesions, which will lead to irreparable damage to vision, and some patients will even be blind. According to statistics, pathological myopia is one of the main causes of blindness in people over 50 years old.

The public may have mythologized the effects of laser myopia surgery: First, it does not cure all myopia, and corneal laser surgery cannot be performed for high myopia beyond a certain degree, and other treatments may be considered, such as intraocular lens implantation with lens ophthalmosa (ICL). Secondly, not all patients with suitable degrees can undergo laser myopia surgery, and must pass a series of preoperative examinations such as cornea and eye surface.

More importantly, myopia surgery actually treats the symptoms but not the root cause, the operation can only remove the glasses, can not change the fundus, on the surface the degree of myopia disappeared, but the risk of highly myopic fundus lesions will not be reduced. Therefore, myopia should start from the doll, do not have a fluke mentality, sit and wait until you grow up and then do myopia surgery, prevent myopia in children, and increase the degree of control, more importantly.

Pit 6:

Visual training cures myopia

Many visual training institutions exaggerate the training effect, claiming to be able to completely cure myopia, in fact, by training children's ability to recognize images, to create the illusion that vision returns to normal.

In fact, the increased eye axis, the degree of myopia and the thinning fundus retina cannot be reversed, and it may also be due to overtraining to increase the intensity of the child's close-up eyes and accelerate the development of myopia.

Many parents do not miss any opportunity for their children's eyes, but they may be in the opposite direction, and they do not use the correct intervention treatment plan, but delay the child's eyes.

Pit 7:

No time outdoors, all by "OK mirror"

Domestic and foreign research data have confirmed that the "three axes" of myopia prevention and control - orthokeratology (OK mirror), low-concentration atropine eye drops and outdoor light for 2 hours / day - are accurate and effective. But now children are under pressure to learn and cannot guarantee sufficient outdoor time, so parents will rely on OK mirrors and low-concentration atropine eye drops for myopia prevention and control.

In fact, OK mirrors and low-concentration atropine are not suitable for every child, and need to be examined for corneal morphology, eye surface status, and regulatory functions, and can only be used under the guidance of a doctor after passing the examination.

The mechanism of myopia is still unclear, and good behavior habits and sufficient outdoor light are the most fundamental prevention and control methods. In fact, most myopia can be prevented. Through good behavior habits, reduce the use of electronic products and close eyes, increase outdoor time, let children run in the sun, why not enjoy it?

Text/Xu Qiong (Peking University People's Hospital)