Clinicians share pearls on communicating myopia treatment options with children, parents
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LAS VEGAS — Optometrists shared common challenges and tips for communicating new myopia treatment options with children and parents during a panel discussion at Vision Expo West.
“One of the biggest challenges that we all continue to hear as we lecture across the world about myopia and talk with people is, how do you implement this and get it really going in your practice,” Dave Kading, OD, FAAO, FCLSA, of Specialty Eye in Washington, said. “One of the things we continue to hear about over and over again are the obstacles about implementation and about how do you really get parents on board with something that when we were kids was just a nuisance, but now is a disease.”
Finding ways to treat children with myopia is especially important because children who develop myopia before age 6 or 7 years are at a six times greater risk for developing progressive myopia, he said, which carries up to 20 to 40 times greater risk for developing glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration and retinopathy.
“The biggest challenge was implementing and finding that magic number for a global fee and talking to the parent about the urgency of getting their kids into the myopia program, whichever one they choose, either [orthokeratology] or with MiSight lenses [CooperVision],” Linh Ngo, OD, of Sacramento Dry Eye Clinic in California, said.
Ngo said that finding the “magic number” for the global fee is an important step to keeping parents and children on board for myopia treatment, even when relaying the information and conducting the proper research is difficult.
“We found that keeping things really simple and having a sense of urgency and explaining factual things to the parent really helped them convert their kids to saying yes and joining the program,” she said.
According to Andrew J. Neukirch, OD, of Carillon Vision Care in Illinois, one of the most important steps for treating children with myopia is getting them excited about the process, which means treating them as an active participant in the discussion.
“I always try to garner as much excitement as I can during that initial consultation appointment,” Neukirch said. “I'm always careful to turn and actually look at that child, and I'll say, ‘Hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about not wearing any glasses to school anymore?’ That makes for a very happy patient, very happy parents and a very happy doctor as well.”
Another key component of an efficient myopia treatment system is having well-trained staff on hand to educate patients on myopia, according to Ashley Wallace-Tucker, OD, FAAO, FSLS, of Bellaire Family Eye Care in Texas.
“Just having that support person that can be your right-hand man or woman has really elevated me and made me feel more empowered,” she said. “And patients love someone outside of the doctor that they can ask maybe those silly questions or the questions that they may not feel comfortable asking you about.”
The panelists agreed that showing parents myopia progression charts is an effective tool to educate them on the importance of entering treatment, as is reminding parents that MiSight is FDA-approved for children aged 8 years and older.
“Making sure you have a plan for every type of patient has been really helpful for me,” Wallace-Tucker said. “Have a plan for the high myope, for the myopic astigmat and for the kid that’s afraid of drops. Really think about every scenario and you will be amazed at how many kids you can help.”
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