Which is the appropriate age for chidren to wear contact lenses?

This question, which is frequently asked by many parents is easy to answer: at any age. Nowadays it is possible to manufacture any graduation with cornea bio-compatible materials. In fact, it exists contact lenses that correct the myopia during the night (Ortho-K): For this reason, age does not mean a problem. The decision to put on contact lenses to our children, whenever they need them, is a matter of motivation.

General and specifici motivations must be taken into account. The general one is that children, during childhood, develop their space orientation from the visual sense. It is important to detect any anomaly and correct it with glasses or contact lenses. But contact lenses fit better to their activities, since they do not need to take these out in order to, for example, play sport. With their usage, we avoid the fact that their space orientation gets affected.

As specific motivations, we analyze the advantages according to the optometrist diagnosis:

Which advantages do contact lenses have for children with respect to glasses?

• Children with high graduation: the image children perceive in their brain through glasses does not have a real size.
• Contact lenses avoid this sensation allowing them to see an image according to the world that surrounds them.
• Those who suffer from hyperopia: those children often see over their glasses because at a far distance they can see properly. With contact lenses this attitude would be avoided. This attitude turns out to be a habit lots of times and this can lead to following problems because of doing a bad graduation usage.
• In the case of children who suffer from myopia: to use contact lenses avoids the visual area restriction which happens when they wear glasses. Even though the restriction is minimum, contact lenses allow the area to enlarge.

Ortho-K contact lenses: to slow down the myopia during the night

Contact lenses applied by means of the Refractive Corneal Therapy (CRT), a treatment that, during the night, modifies the corneal curve and corrects myopia. During the day it will not be necessary to wear neither glasses nor contact lenses. That is why these are ideal for children and young people that suffer from myopia, because these stop the myopia increase and fulfil all the previous motivations. These contact lenses are designed to correct until 6.00 graduation in myopia, until 1.75 graduation in astigmatism and until 3.00 in hyperopia.