Bristol-based Lynne Fernandes Optometrists is one of the very first practices in the UK to be granted permission to offer a ground-breaking product that has been proven to slow progression of myopia (short-sight) in children.
Lynne Fernandes (right in photo) and Corrina McElduff (left) are the only optometrists in the South West to have undergone the detailed training required to prescribe the new CooperVision MiSight® 1 day contact lens, making them part of an elite group of just twenty practitioners UK-wide.
It is the first contact lens to be launched in the UK that has been developed specifically for children to reduce progression of myopia.*
Lynne Fernandes is the owner and founder of three high street optometrist practices, Nailsea, Totterdown and Bishopston, and works with Corrina McElduff, a trained myopia control optometrist at the Gloucester Road practice.
Myopia develops because the eyeball over-grows, stretching the tissues within the eye. The new therapeutic lens, a thin daily disposable with special focussing characteristics, works by slowing the over-growth of the eyeball. Lynne Fernandes Optometrists is making the lens available to anyone over the age of 6 years.
Cases of myopia have doubled over the last thirty years in the UK, with most of this change occurring in the last decade. It is known that genetics play their part, with two myopic parents more likely to have myopic children than non-myopic parents.
Corrina McElduff, who specialises in myopia management, explains:
“We have been running myopia control clinics for some time. It is a condition that I am passionate about helping patients with. Although myopia cannot be cured, it can be slowed down. The younger you start a myopia control programme the better the chance of success. And, the best time for effective treatment is when myopia is low, as the change is usually most rapid in the first year or two.
“A child with low myopia in year 7 will most likely not be able to read the top letters on the eye chart without glasses by year 10.
“We talk to many parents who wonder what help they can give their children who are myopic, especially since children now are becoming myopic at a younger age. Developing higher levels of myopia increases the lifetime risk of myopic eye disease, such as retinal detachment, glaucoma and macular disease.
“It’s so important that we do all we can to preserve our children’s vision.”
CooperVision MiSight® 1 day has been scientifically proven to reduce myopic progression by up to 59% over two years**.
Lynne concludes, “We’re sure that the new lens will be welcomed by parents, particularly by those who are themselves short-sighted. The stats for the new MiSight lens are very encouraging – and as specialists in myopia management, we’re thrilled to be offering this ground-breaking contact lens for children 6 years and above including teenagers and adults where their myopia continues to progress.”
*MiSight ®1 day obtained its CE mark in 2008 and has been available in Asia for 5 years but has only been launched in the UK at the beginning of March 2017 to specialist practitioners who have undergone detailed training. These therapeutic lenses are designed to be worn for ten hours a day every day
** Clinical Evaluation of the MiSight® Dual-Focus Myopia Control 1-Day Soft Contact Lens Study during the American Academy of Optometry’s 95th Annual Meeting. Innovative therapy substantially slows myopia progression and eye elongation as measured by refractive error and axial length at the two-year mark
Bishopston Mum 