Why myopia control matters more than the prescription

Most parents think of nearsightedness as inconvenient — a stronger prescription every year, foggy glasses, dry contacts, trouble seeing the board. That’s the visible part. The reason myopia management exists is what’s happening underneath.

Myopia is the eye growing too long, front to back. As it grows, the retina at the back of the eye stretches with it. That stretching, over decades, raises the lifetime risk of:

• Retinal detachments and tears — the elongated eye stretches the retina until it tears or detaches.
• Myopic maculopathy — degenerative changes in the central retina that can permanently reduce reading and driving vision.
• Glaucoma — high myopia roughly doubles the lifetime risk.
• Earlier cataracts — myopic eyes tend to develop cataracts a decade or more earlier than average.

These risks scale with how myopic the eye becomes. A child who reaches –6.00 carries dramatically more lifetime risk than one we slow to –3.00. That’s the goal of myopia management — not perfect vision, but a less-myopic eye than the child would otherwise have had.

Side-by-side at a glance

What myopia management costs at COVE

Pricing depends on which approach we land on:

• Stellest spectacle lenses — around $500 for the lenses, plus frames
• MiSight 1 day soft contacts — around $1,200 per year
• Ortho-K — starts around $700 for the initial fitting and lenses

All three are FSA and HSA eligible. We accept VSP and EyeMed; coverage varies by plan and we verify your benefits before the visit.

🛡️ The COVE myopia management guarantee
If your child’s prescription changes mid-treatment, we remake the lenses — Ortho-K, Stellest, or MiSight — at no extra charge. You’re paying for the year of care, not for a snapshot of your child’s prescription.

Custom-made lenses provide optimal vision and comfort, tailored specifically to your child’s unique eye shape at Central Ohio Vision and Eyecare.

How we decide what’s right for your child

There isn’t one best treatment. There’s the one that fits your child and your family. We look at several things together:

• Age and progression rate. Kids whose myopia is changing fast, or who started myopia very young, are the highest-priority candidates and may benefit from combination therapy (e.g., atropine plus Stellest).
• Lifestyle and activity. Active kids, swimmers, and gymnasts often do well with ortho-k. Kids who are sensitive about wearing contacts may prefer spectacle-based options.
• Compliance. Atropine requires a nightly drop. Ortho-K requires nightly insertion. MiSight requires daily insertion. Stellest just requires wearing the glasses we’d be making anyway.
• What’s been tried. If a child is already in glasses or contacts that aren’t working, we know more about how their eyes respond.

We talk through the trade-offs and pick the approach that’s most likely to work in real life, not just on paper.

What a myopia management consult looks like

A myopia management consult is more than a regular eye exam. We measure:

• Refraction — current prescription and how it’s changed.
• Axial length — the actual front-to-back length of the eye, the most accurate marker of myopia progression. We track this every six months to know whether treatment is working.
• Corneal topography — a detailed map of the front of the eye, especially important if ortho-k is on the table.
• Binocular vision — how the eyes work together, which sometimes contributes to focusing problems that mimic worsening myopia.

We also want to understand your child’s habits — screen time, time spent outside, reading distance, and family history. Time outdoors genuinely matters: the research consistently shows kids who spend more time outside have slower myopia progression. We’ll talk about practical changes alongside clinical treatment.

If your child has never had a full eye exam with us, we’ll typically pair the consult with a pediatric eye exam so we have a complete baseline.

Why families come to COVE for myopia management

Dr. Keller has been a pediatric eye care specialist for over two decades, is an InfantSEE provider, and has examined thousands of children across Central Ohio. See our pediatric eye doctor page → Dr. Karres has a research background in specialty contact lens design — including ortho-k — and presented at international optometry conferences on the topic. Together they handle the full range of cases, from the first-time young myope to the kid who’s already tried two or three approaches without success.

We don’t rush the consult. Picking a myopia treatment is the start of a multi-year relationship — we want it to be the right one.

And we stand behind the materials. If your child’s prescription changes mid-treatment, we replace the lenses — Ortho-K, Stellest, or MiSight — at no extra charge. Kids’ eyes change. The plan should keep up.

Schedule a myopia management consult

If your child’s prescription keeps changing, or you’re tired of accepting that as normal, give us a call. We see patients from New Albany, Gahanna, Westerville, Johnstown, and across Central Ohio.

Schedule a Myopia Management Consult | Call 614-933-0575

Frequently asked questions

At what age can my child start myopia management?

There isn’t a hard age cutoff. We have an option for almost any kid:

• Stellest spectacle lenses for kids who aren’t ready for drops or contacts
• MiSight 1 day soft contacts for kids who want a low-maintenance daytime option
• Ortho-K for kids who’d rather not wear anything during the school day, at sports, or in the pool
• Low-dose atropine drops as a second-line option or in combination

The right starting point depends more on your child’s comfort, lifestyle, and rate of progression than on a specific age. We’ll talk through fit and readiness at the consult.

What myopia management costs at COVE

Pricing depends on which approach we land on:

All three are FSA and HSA eligible. We accept VSP and EyeMed; coverage varies by plan and we verify your benefits before the visit.

Does vision insurance cover any of it?

Coverage varies by plan, but here’s what we typically see with the carriers we accept:

• VSP — applies a material benefit toward Ortho-K and MiSight lenses, and a frame allowance toward Stellest. Professional fees for fitting and follow-ups aren’t covered.
• EyeMed — covers professional services for Ortho-K, may apply a material benefit toward MiSight, and offers some coverage for Stellest lenses and frames.

We verify your specific benefits before the visit so you know what to expect. Anything not covered is FSA/HSA eligible.

How quickly will we know if it’s working?

Most kids in myopia management come in for follow-ups every six months. With Ortho-K and MiSight, we add a few extra lens checks early on to make sure the fit is right and your child is comfortable.

At each visit we look at the prescription change and, where appropriate, axial length — that’s the most reliable indicator of whether the eye is still lengthening. We’re typically able to tell within the first 6–12 months whether the treatment we picked is doing what we want it to.

What if the first treatment we try isn’t working?

Switching is normal. If progression isn’t slowing the way we’d like, we’ll often move from one option to another — a child who started with MiSight may transition to Ortho-K, for example, or the other direction. Low-dose atropine is commonly added as a second-line option, sometimes layered with another treatment.

The goal stays the same: protect long-term eye health by slowing how fast the eye is lengthening. The path to get there can flex as your child grows.

Not sure if myopia management is right for your child?

That’s exactly what the consult is for. We’ll measure your child’s eye, talk through the options, and give you a straight answer about whether their progression rate warrants treatment — and which approach fits your family. We see patients from New Albany, Gahanna, Westerville, Johnstown, and across Central Ohio.

Call us at (614) 933-0575 to talk it through, or book a myopia management consult online.