VIDEO: Expert urges caution in use of red light therapy for myopia control
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NEW YORK — The use of repeated low-level red light therapy to control myopia is gaining popularity around the world, but clinicians should exercise caution with these devices, according to a speaker at Vision Expo East.
“While some of the evidence will certainly suggest that it works, there’s a lack of evidence to date looking at the long-term safety [and] ... rebound when people stop using these devices,” Lyndon Jones, BSc, PhD, DSc, FCAHS, FCOptom, DipCLP, DipOrth, FAAO, FIACLE, FBCLA, said in this Healio video.
“There are many devices where we don’t know what the power of the laser is, we don’t know what the wavelength is, we don’t know how they should be used in patients,” he said.
Jones, director of the Centre for Ocular Research & Education at the University of Waterloo, called for longer, placebo-controlled studies.
“If we look at the evidence that’s required for use of contact lenses and spectacle lenses for myopia, I don’t think we have that evidence yet for repeated low level red light therapy,” he said.
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Jones L, et al. Global Contact Lens Forum: Myopia control – The good, the bad, and the ugly. Presented at: Vision Expo East; March 14-17, 2024; New York.
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