Comparing The Evidence
Myopia Control Treatments Compared
Several treatments genuinely slow myopia progression. The best one for your child depends on more than just clinical trial percentages.
Several treatments genuinely slow myopia progression. The best one for your child depends on more than just clinical trial percentages.
Families often ask us which myopia control treatment is “the best.” The honest answer is that we offer five treatment options, each with genuine clinical trial evidence behind it, and the differences between the top-performing options are usually smaller than the differences between children.
That's why this page focuses on how each treatment works and what the evidence actually shows, rather than ranking them by a single number. Our Myopia Control page covers the bigger picture of why slowing progression matters, and our Evidence-Based Treatment page covers the research behind our approach in full.
Clinical trials consistently group treatments into rough tiers based on how much they slow axial elongation compared with standard correction alone.
Overnight corneal reshaping lenses. Among the most researched myopia control treatments, with trials generally showing around 50% or more reduction in axial elongation. Also corrects vision by day, with nothing worn while awake. Full details on OrthoK.
Daily soft lenses with dual-focus optics, worn during waking hours. Randomised trials of MiSight showed roughly 50% or more reduction in progression over standard soft lens wear. Full details on myopia control contact lenses.
Everyday spectacle lenses built with specialised optical zones. Trials of MiyoSMART and Stellest have both reported around 50% or greater reduction in progression, making glasses a genuinely effective, low-maintenance option. Full details on myopia control glasses.
Nightly eye drops that slow progression pharmacologically. Higher concentrations such as 0.05% have shown effect sizes broadly in line with the lens-based options above; lower concentrations such as 0.01% appear meaningfully less effective. Can be used alone or alongside a lens-based treatment.
A non-lens treatment using short daily sessions of low-level red light at home, simulating some of the retinal signalling associated with outdoor light exposure. Once considered an early-stage option, it now has a genuinely large evidence base behind it: a 2022 multicentre randomised trial, and more recently a real-world cohort of nearly 2,900 children followed for up to five years, showing effective axial length control sustained across all five years, with some meta-analyses suggesting its effect size may match or exceed atropine and contact lens options. As with any newer treatment, we monitor eye health closely during use, including periodic retinal checks.
Pairing a lens-based treatment with low-dose atropine, aiming for additional slowing beyond either treatment alone. An evolving area of evidence, most relevant for children whose progression remains significant on a single treatment.
Efficacy figures from different clinical trials aren't directly comparable to each other, since study populations, follow-up length and comparison groups all differ. A 60% result in one trial doesn't necessarily beat a 50% result in another. We look at the overall weight of evidence for each treatment, not just the headline number, when forming a recommendation.
Once we're past the top tier of similarly effective treatments, the decision usually comes down to the individual child rather than the evidence alone: their age, prescription, eye health, sport and activity level, how they'll cope with contact lens handling or overnight lens wear, and what will realistically be worn consistently, since consistency matters as much as the treatment itself.
A treatment a child won't wear reliably isn't the right treatment for them, no matter how strong its trial data looks on paper. That's the clinical reasoning we apply at every myopia control consultation, and why two children with the same prescription can end up on genuinely different plans.
Book a comprehensive myopia assessment and we'll talk through which evidence-based options genuinely suit your child's age, prescription and lifestyle.