BenQ

Degenerative myopia is a severe form of nearsightedness that damages the retina. The retina is what lets you ‘capture’ images in order to send them to your brain. This is important as an eye doctor can check for retinal damage during an eye exam. Your doctor will widen (dilate) your eyes in order to see your retinas. Both types of myopia result in your eyeball being stretched, but degenerative myopia means there is damage to the tissues in the eye. Tissue damage does increase the possibility of sight loss. Degenerative myopia can lead to macula issues.

Actually, reading while lying down by itself has no effect on eyesight. This is provided that you do keep a good reading distance and have adequate light. A good reading distance is about 20 to 30cm. Any form of close reading in any type of position can be considered near-work, which should be avoided. However, reading while lying down is discouraged because gravity pulls your book towards you. That said, it is more likely you will not keep a good reading distance.

Myopia often begins during childhood. This happens when the eyeball grows too long, thus, causing blurry distance vision. In most cases, myopia tends to get worse as the kid gets older as their eyes will continue to grow. There are many factors that may affect your child's myopia progression speed: the family history of myopia, ethnicity - Asian children have the highest risk [1], lifestyle - the amount of near work, previous history of premature delivery. References: 1. Theophanous C, Modjtahedi B, Batech M, Marlin D, Luong T, Fong D. Myopia prevalence and risk factors in children.

Computer vision syndrome refers to a group of eye and vision related symptoms related to prolonged computer use. These include: headaches blurred or fluctuating visual clarity, subjective feelings of 'eyestrain', dry eyes, and neck and shoulder discomfort. These may occur even from prolonged reading of paper documents/articles, the difference being that computer screens tend to be more fixed in their positions. Since 'computer vision syndrome' is an overuse problem, the 100% effective cure is to stop using computers, or tablets and other electronic/digital media.

One way to be free of spectacles and contact lenses would be to consider laser vision correction (eg LASIK, ReLEx SMILE, PRK). Not everyone is suitable for laser vision correction, so it is always helpful to go through a pre-laser evaluation or assessment to ascertain if this surgical option is suitable for your eyes. Should one be suitable for lasers, management of expectations is important as well. Laser vision correction aims to help one gain spectacles independence.

There are several possibilities, so knowing the cause for a particular person will only be possible after a thorough consultation at an eye clinic. Having said that, what are the possibilities? One is eye dryness. When we read or look at screens (eg watching movies, playing games) for prolonged periods of time, we tend not to blink as often. This means the eyes are exposed to the air for longer periods of time and the tears will evaporate more, leading to a dry ocular surface.

Thanks for your question! I think your instincts are correct! The evidence still supports patching as directed by your attending Ophthalmologist, and perhaps convergence exercises (aka Pencil push-ups, if there is an element of convergence insufficiency in the intermittent exotropia). Your Ophthalmologist would have evaluated your child to exclude a secondary cause for the exotropia, and would be working with you to optimise her final visual acuity and alignment in order to maintain excellent visual acuity and binocular vision.