The special feature of the MiSight contact lens is that it slows down the progression of myopia. This means your child will have less thick lenses, lighter glasses and a statistically lower probability of suffering from certain eye diseases.
In addition, the MiSight contact lens offers a high level of comfort since there is no need for additional care products like lens cleaners. The daily lenses it is inserted, worn throughout the day and disposed of before bedtime.
Unlike other approaches to slow down myopia there is no rebound effect as with atropine. Twelve months after the end of the fitting, data on average axial length growth of the eye show no evidence of a “rebound” effect. This means slowing down of myopia during the period waring the lenses is maintained.
Experience With the Misight Contact Lens
Experience with the lens has been very promising in our shop. The lens is made on the material Omafilcon A, which has been on the market for a long time with the Proclear contact lens. The material has a high water content, which leads to high spontaneous tolerance.
However, the oxygen permeability with the contact lens could be better. We have a DK/t value of 28, which is rather low. Here it is to be observed, how the eyes of the child react to it individually.
Of course, this is the case with any contact lens. Often, however, regular follow-up checks are not observed and that would be a mistake, as with other contact lenses. Especially with a recommended wearing time of more than six days per week with more than 10 hours per day each.
The experience that the children have with the contact lens is very good. Only a few notice the altered focus zone in the periphery of the lens. When these are noticed, slightly blurred vision is described, or the perception of halos, but these are usually not noticed after a few days of wearing the lens and are no longer experienced as annoying.
Visual Performance and Perception When Using the Misight
When the contact lenses are fitted, there is no loss of visual performance for the child. The myopia control zone may possibly lead to a minimally reduced contrast perception during the day. But vision is usually different at night.
The reason for this is that the myopia control zone is located towards the outer area of the Misight contact lens and in the dark the pupils are more dilated than in the brightness of the day.
This changes the incoming light beam in the outer area from refraction and causes halo effects to be seen around lanterns or headlights to scatter more. How much your child is affected depends on the individual opening of the pupil. This can sometimes differ significantly.
It is not really possible to say beforehand how disturbing this effect must be for your child, although the opening of the pupil can be measured under different lighting conditions.
You simply have to test the Misight and pay attention to the visual performance in different light conditions. After all, your child will usually ride a bike while it is still dark in the winter or have to go to school at times while it is getting light later and dark earlier.
In our experience, most children’s visual acuity already changes with misight, if slightly noticeable, when the room you are in is lit differently and when you are outside.
This is a little unusual at first, but usually the children cope very well and after 1-2 weeks the difference in the changes in visual performance is not further noticeable with the Misight.
Fitting
The fitting of the contact lens turns out to be very uncomplicated for the optician. There is only the lens power to consider and then the contact lens fits or it does not fit. Unlike custom contact lenses, for example, there is only one geometry. If the Misight contact lens stabilizes well and after each blink a minimal movement of 0.2-0.5 mm is to be seen and the Misight provides for a pleasant stretcher comfort and a good wetting of the contact lens surface is given, then the contact lens can be given first.
This is deliberately left for the time being, because it is only in the course of the follow-up checks that it becomes clear whether the Misight fits your child’s eyes individually. In the follow-up, when the contact lens is worn the whole day, the fitting of the contact lens must be examined under the microscope. Below you can see pictures of the Misight.
Here you can see, for example, whether the eye is red in a certain place or to what extent the wetting of the contact lens is still given after a whole day of wearing. This already shows a lot, but to make the control perfect, the eye must also be controlled without the Misight with the help of Floureszin.
Only then can the optician see whether the contact lens is too tight, leaves marks or cell defects are visible. Without the contrast medium, it is not possible to make a statement in this regard. If there are no cell defects or impressions, then the fitting is good and the child can wear the Misight. If cell defects show up, then it is necessary to change to another custom-fit product.
In most cases, however, this is not necessary because the Misight fits very well. Fitting is possible from -0.25 to -10.00 D. The available base curve of the contact lens is 8.7, and the diameter is 14.2 mm, as with many soft contact lenses.
There is a wearing recommendation regarding the wearing time within the first week for the Misight from Cooper Vision. This looks as follows:
Day | Day | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 |
Hours | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | all waking hors |
This recommendation may also be deviated from in individual cases, depending on the fitting phase. The Misight contact lens is disposed of at the end of the day. A fresh lens is used again the next day.
Wearing Comfort With the Misight
The wearing comfort is usually good and the children get along very well with the contact lens. Due to the water content of 60%, this is a contact lens with a fairly high water content, which provides a high level of wearing comfort.
Some customers describe a slight itch or a little foreign body sensation in the initial phase. But this is completely normal. The Misight is also very easy to use due to the light bluish tint, and is seen slightly better during fitting and care than other contact lenses that do not have a tint.
Conclusion
The MiSight contact lens allows children with advancing nearsightedness to be provided for the first time with daily disposable lenses that slow down the growth of nearsightedness. The price is about 35 € per 30 lenses. It is of course a premium over conventional contact lenses, but from the perspective that reduced myopia can prevent many problems later in life, it is a great option and alternative to Ortho K contact lenses or myopia control glasses.