{"id":58181,"date":"2026-06-05T08:18:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=58181"},"modified":"2026-06-05T08:18:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T00:18:59","slug":"commentary-if-your-childs-myopia-keeps-getting-worse-having-new-spectacles-isnt-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=58181","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: If your child\u2019s myopia keeps getting worse, having new spectacles isn\u2019t enough"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<h2><span lang=\"EN\">WHY WAITING IS NOT A NEUTRAL CHOICE\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\">One common misconception is the belief that myopia can simply be \u201cfixed\u201d later. Refractive surgery such as LASIK may reduce dependence on glasses in adulthood, but it does not reverse eye elongation that has already occurred.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\">Those who already had high myopia before surgery remain at higher risk of myopia-related eye disease later in life, even after surgery.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\">In very high myopia, refractive surgery may also be less suitable as higher correction requires more corneal tissue removal, which can affect corneal strength and increase surgical risk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\">This is why waiting should not be seen as a neutral choice. By the time a child reaches high myopia, some lifelong risks may already be locked in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\">Singapore has made great strides in raising awareness of childhood myopia. The next step is to move beyond awareness towards active management.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\">Parents can start by asking three questions at their child\u2019s next eye check: How fast is the myopia progressing? Should axial length be measured? What evidence-based options are suitable for my child?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\">These questions move the conversation beyond stronger glasses towards protecting children\u2019s long-term eye health.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\">We may not be able to eliminate childhood myopia, but we should no longer accept rapid progression as inevitable or treat repeated prescription changes as the full extent of care.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN\">In a country where myopia is so common, the greatest risk may be that we have become too used to it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span lang=\"EN\">Dr Foo Li Lian is Head and Clinical Director of the Myopia Service at the\u00a0Singapore National Eye Centre and Clinical Assistant Professor at\u00a0Duke-NUS Medical School. She also serves as President of the\u00a0Myopia Society of Singapore.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.channelnewsasia.com\/commentary\/child-myopia-eye-health-singapore-6161566\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WHY WAITING IS NOT A NEUTRAL CHOICE\u00a0 One common misconception is the belief that myopia can simply be \u201cfixed\u201d later. Refractive surgery such as LASIK&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--u4NYCwqX--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/06\/04\/myopia_kids_istock.jpg?itok=8tOtvSf1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24187,1126,605,17092,24188,16265],"class_list":["post-58181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-childs","tag-commentary","tag-isnt","tag-myopia","tag-spectacles","tag-worse","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}