Can children wear contact lenses?

Many people know how insulting it is when they call you “four eyed” at school. And surely everyone had at least one classmate with glasses, who almost always was an object of ridicule. At best, they were simply ignored.

Psychologists believe that wearing glasses during school can turn into a significant psychological problem, leaving a mark on person’s whole life.

And if, until recently, the only solution to this problem was the parents’ attempts to convince the child that the glasses are normal, that they should not be shy, and if chosen properly, they can emphasize their facial features (very few parents managed to do that). Now this problem has another solution – contact lenses.

In most cases, contact lenses are permitted for children from the age of 6. At this age, the child is already able to independently, or under partial parent supervision, take care of the lenses. In some cases, ophthalmologists recommend contact vision correction for younger children. But then older family members should take care of the lenses.

In addition to psychological comfort, you can list a few more advantages of contact vision correction:

– contact lenses do not lead to a limitation of the field of view or optical distortions of objects. While glasses significantly reduce the peripheral field of view, making spatial orientation difficult;

– contact lenses are best suited for children, since most often they lead active lifestyles – play on the street, play sports, attend various classes and electives. In these conditions, glasses do not perform in the best way – they can become dusty, foggy. When a child falls, glasses can break, injuring him with splinters. Often glasses do not hold well on the bridge of the nose and must be constantly adjusted.

All of these problems can be avoided by using the right contact lenses.

In children’s contact vision correction, both soft and hard contact lenses can be used. But since children’s eyes have a lower cornea sensitivity than adults, lenses with a high oxygen permeability coefficient (Dk / t) will be optimal for the child.

Indications for the appointment of contact lenses for a child may be the following diseases:

Myopia

Today, myopia is the most common defect in the optical system of the eye. According to UK ophthalmologists, myopia is observed in 5% of seven-year-olds, in 38% of thirteen-year-olds, and in 52% of twenty-year-olds. The results of many studies have shown that wearing gas-permeable contact lenses helps to slow the progression of myopia, and in some cases even stabilize it.

Hyperopia

In this case, the contact correction helps the child see objects of true size and perceive them at the distance at which they are in reality, in contrast to correction with glasses, which distorts the size of objects and the distance to them, which increases the risk of street injuries.

Astigmatism

This is an anomaly of the optical system of the eye, in which two mutually perpendicular meridians of the eye have different refractive powers. Mixed astigmatism is the most difficult to correct when two different refractions are combined in the eye in two mutually perpendicular meridians: myopia and hyperopia.

In addition to the fact that astigmatism reduces visual acuity, it sometimes leads to the development of strabismus, amblyopia, and can cause an ailment.

Anisometropia

This is a condition in which the refraction of the right and left eyes is different. In this case, correction with glasses leads to significant inconvenience because, due to the difference in optical power, one lens can be significantly heavier than the other. In addition, glasses in this case often cause nausea and headache in children due to the difference in the size of the images

Using contact lenses, these problems can be avoided by making the correction more effective.

Amblyopia (lazy eye)

In the presence of this visual impairment, treatment with glasses is carried out as follows: the seeing eye is closed with an occluder (whoever knows knows what it is, whoever doesn’t – remember the children who have one eye or one glass in their glasses sealed), giving optimal optical correction for the worse seeing eye. As a rule, children are reluctant to agree to this type of treatment because of their appearance and inconvenience in everyday life.

It is much easier to carry out a penalization (from Fr. penalite – punishment, fine) of the better seeing eye with a special contact lens. Thus, the child will not feel discomfort, because this is not noticeable on the outside. Another plus is that it is absolutely impossible to peek with a well-seeing eye from under a contact lens, while children with glasses try to do this quite often.

Aphakia (lack of crystalline)

Correction of unilateral aphakia in children with glasses is almost impossible due to the fact that there is a very large refraction between the eyes, and the difference in the weight of the glasses is very large accordingly. In addition, wearing glasses with unilateral aphakia is the cause of aniseikonia – a condition in which the size of the same object is perceived differently by each eye.

Correction of bilateral aphakia can theoretically be carried out with the help of glasses, but in this case the glasses will significantly increase and zoom in objects, as in the case of hyperopia, limiting the lateral field of view. Therefore, to date, most often aphakia in children is corrected with the help of contact lenses.

It should be noted that contact lenses cannot be used if:

 – the child has manifestations of a common acute viral infection;

– an infectious eye disease begins;

– if the child has allergic reactions in the form of allergic conjunctivitis to foods, plants, household allergens and medications.

It should also be noted that if a child uses contact vision correction, this does not mean that he does not need glasses at all.
Firstly, the “overusing” of the lenses can become a rather serious problem, therefore, contact correction must alternate with glasses so that the cornea of ​​the eye can rest from contact with the lens.
Secondly, as mentioned earlier, the use of lenses becomes unacceptable during periods of infectious diseases, which sometimes happens in children.

Experts strongly recommend that you remove lenses at night so that the eyes can rest, even if your child uses lenses that are flexible, prolonged, or continuous.

The selection of contact lenses for a child is a very major responsibility, so you need to be serious about it. To do this, you need to contact a specialist in this area and do not choose the lenses yourself.

Before allowing lenses to be worn, the doctor must conduct a complete ophthalmological examination of the child’s eyes: examination with a slit lamp, determining visual acuity, diameter and radius of curvature of the cornea, determining eye refraction, ophthalmoscopy. After analyzing the results of the examination, the doctor decides which lenses are suitable for a particular child. Parents must be present during the examination so that the doctor can explain to them all the pros and cons of contact correction of child’s vision, as well as the rules for wearing lenses, how to care for them and their storage conditions.