Nearsightedness: what it Myopia and how to correct it

By Cristiano Antonino On Oct 18, 2022

Nearsightedness is one of the three main visual defects (along with astigmatism and farsightedness), which does not allow the correct focusing and visualisation of images

Thanks to extensive medical knowledge and state-of-the-art surgical techniques, it can also be diagnosed and permanently corrected.

Nearsightedness is a refractive defect of the eye that prevents objects from being focused from a distance, whereas they are seen very well up close

This happens because the myopic person does not properly converge the light rays on the retina and the vision of the images will form in front of it instead of, as it should, on the retina, thus being blurred as the object moves away and even different in size to the real one.

Myopia is measured in dioptres and can be classified according to different degrees of severity:

mild: when the defect is less than 3-4 dioptres;
medium: up to 6 dioptres;
high: above these values.

Causes and diagnosis of myopia

Myopia can be hereditary or developmental and usually appears during childhood/adolescence and then usually stabilises around the age of 25-30, although it sometimes increases with age.

The visual defect can generally be due to an altered shape and curvature of the eyeball, lens or cornea.

The main types of nearsightedness that result are:

the axial form (the most frequent form of myopia) in which the eyeball is longer than the refractive power;
the index form, where the greater curvature of the crystalline lens causes an alteration in the refractive index (generally occurs during the cataract formation process);
keratoconus, in which the cornea undergoes wear and tear with an increase in its curvature, resulting in myopia.

Myopic persons often suffer from headaches, eyestrain with the need to squint to see more clearly, and difficulties with twilight and night vision.

Among the eye tests used to diagnose myopia, one of the most popular is certainly the Snellen chart, used to quantify visual acuity.

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