Can my child wear contact lenses? Can he made a surgery to not wear glasses?

There are many doubts about the use of contact lenses in children and young people and the ophthalmologist Pedro Menéres gives some help:

There is no exact and well-defined minimum age for wearing contact lenses. In most cases they are postponed until the child or young person is mature enough to handle them and understands the risks associated with wearing them. Therefore, we are usually talking about teenagers and not for children before 12, 13 or 14 years of age.

There are situations in which its use is justified at earlier ages, in certain cases such as the presence of an amblyopic or lazy eye, and in specific clinical situations, such as when there is a great difference in grading between the two eyes.

Also for short periods in sport and in specific cases of very high graduations, the ophthalmologist may prescribe their use, as an alternative to special sports glasses. But, at the earliest ages, they will always require training and parental support every day they are worn.

In reality, contact lenses should not be prescribed on a whim (for example, in situations of changing eye colour) and it is necessary and very important that an ophthalmologist evaluation is done to verify that there are no contraindications to wearing contact lenses, even when they can be very useful.

Surgeries to stop using glasses or contact lenses - either refractive correction with LASER or with the implantation of intraocular lenses - are not indicated in all cases, and should only be proposed when the growth of the eye ends and graduation stabilises. Generally, the vast majority of surgeries are only carried out in adulthood, usually after the age of 21; this is after a careful study of each case by the ophthalmologist; therefore, it is not a situation which is usually indicated for children.

This and other advice is available on the TSF website.

With the support of the Portuguese Society of Ophthalmology.