Myopia, or nearsightedness, can be corrected with glasses, contact lenses, or surgery depending on your age, prescription strength, and goals. About half the world’s population is projected to be myopic by 2050, making this one of the most common vision problems on the planet. The good news: there are more effective options available now than ever before, ranging from simple single-vision lenses to permanent surgical reshaping of the eye.
Glasses and Contact Lenses
For most people, the first and simplest correction is a pair of prescription glasses with single-vision lenses. These use a concave (slightly curved inward) lens to refocus light onto your retina instead of in front of it, instantly sharpening distant objects. Standard single-vision lenses correct blurry vision but don’t influence how the eye grows or prevent myopia from getting worse over time.
Contact lenses do the same job as glasses but sit directly on the eye. Standard soft contacts come in daily disposable, biweekly, and monthly varieties. For people with higher prescriptions or astigmatism alongside their myopia, rigid gas-permeable lenses sometimes provide sharper vision than soft lenses. The choice between glasses and contacts is largely personal preference, lifestyle, and comfort.
Slowing Myopia in Children
If your child’s prescription keeps climbing year after year, correction alone isn’t the full picture. Several approaches can slow that progression, which matters because higher myopia later in life increases the risk of serious eye conditions like retinal detachment and glaucoma.
Specialty lenses designed for myopia control look like regular glasses but incorporate subtle optical zones that influence how light hits the peripheral retina. Brands like Stellest, MiYOSMART, and MyoCare maintain a large clear central zone for sharp distance vision while working to reduce the signals that drive eye elongation. They’re cosmetically discreet with no visible lines or segments, unlike older bifocal designs.
Orthokeratology (ortho-K) uses rigid contact lenses worn overnight that gently reshape the cornea while a child sleeps. The lenses come out in the morning, and vision stays clear throughout the day without glasses or contacts. Beyond the convenience factor, ortho-K physically shortens the eye slightly. In one study, roughly 82.5% of participants showed a measurable reduction in axial length (the front-to-back measurement of the eyeball that increases as myopia worsens).
Low-dose atropine eye drops are another tool. In the LAMP study of 438 children, a nightly drop at 0.05% concentration slowed eye elongation by 0.21 mm in the first year compared to placebo and reduced myopia progression by about half a diopter. Lower concentrations (0.025% and 0.01%) also worked but were less effective. Over three years, the 0.05% dose produced a cumulative reduction in eye elongation of 0.55 mm. A broader meta-analysis found low-dose atropine slowed eye growth by an average of 15%.
Time Outdoors Makes a Real Difference
One of the most accessible ways to reduce myopia risk in children doesn’t involve any lenses or drops at all. Spending time outside in bright natural light has a protective effect. A school-based trial found that 120 to 150 minutes of daily outdoor time at typical daylight intensity (around 5,000 lux) reduced the risk of developing myopia by 15% to 24%. Pushing that to 140 to 170 minutes daily brought the risk reduction up to 21% to 30%. Indoor lighting, even in well-lit rooms, typically falls far short of 5,000 lux, so this benefit is specifically tied to being outside during the day.
Laser Surgery: LASIK, PRK, and SMILE
If you’re an adult looking to reduce or eliminate your dependence on glasses, laser refractive surgery is the most common permanent option. All three major procedures reshape the cornea so light focuses correctly on the retina, and the long-term visual outcomes are essentially identical. The differences come down to how the surgeon accesses the corneal tissue, which affects recovery time and who qualifies.
LASIK is the most well-known option. The surgeon creates a thin flap in the cornea, reshapes the tissue underneath with a laser, then replaces the flap. Most people return to work and driving the next day, with subtle improvements continuing over the following six months. You need to be at least 18 (ideally over 21, when your prescription is more likely to have stabilized), and your prescription shouldn’t have changed significantly in the past year. The national average cost is about $2,250 per eye, or roughly $4,500 total.
PRK is the better choice if you have thin corneas, a high prescription, or participate in contact sports where a blow to the eye could dislodge a LASIK flap. Instead of creating a flap, the surgeon removes the outer layer of the cornea entirely and reshapes the tissue beneath it. The tradeoff is a longer recovery: vision is often blurry for up to three weeks, and doctors sometimes recommend doing one eye at a time. A protective contact lens is worn for five to six days after the procedure to help healing. PRK tends to cost less than LASIK.
SMILE is a newer option that falls between the two. The surgeon uses a laser to create a small disc of tissue inside the cornea and removes it through a tiny incision, with no flap. It corrects nearsightedness and astigmatism. Recovery is faster than PRK, with most patients seeing well within about a week, though it takes a bit longer than LASIK’s next-day turnaround. SMILE is a good fit for people who would benefit from the structural advantages of PRK (no flap) but want a quicker healing timeline.
Dry Eye After Laser Surgery
The most talked-about side effect of LASIK is dry eye. The reported rates vary widely, from about 4% developing a lasting dry eye syndrome to as many as 60% to 70% experiencing some degree of dryness during the healing period. For most people, the dryness is temporary and manageable with lubricating drops in the weeks and months after surgery. PRK and SMILE tend to cause less nerve disruption in the cornea than LASIK, which can mean less dryness, though it’s still possible with any procedure. It’s also worth knowing that some degree of prescription regression (a partial return of nearsightedness) has been observed in about 32% of LASIK patients at the 12-month mark in one study, though this is often minor.
Implantable Lenses for High Myopia
Laser surgery has limits. It removes corneal tissue to reshape the eye, and there’s only so much tissue to work with, especially at higher prescriptions. For people with moderate to severe myopia (roughly negative 3 to negative 20 diopters), an implantable collamer lens (ICL) offers an alternative. This is a thin, flexible lens that’s placed inside the eye, in front of your natural lens, through a small incision. It works like a permanent contact lens that you never have to remove or maintain.
The FDA-approved EVO ICL is designed for people between 21 and 45 years old whose prescription has been stable for at least a year. Candidates need adequate space inside the front chamber of the eye for the lens to fit, along with a healthy density of cells on the inner corneal surface. Unlike laser procedures, an ICL doesn’t permanently remove tissue, so it can be removed or replaced if your needs change. It’s not an option if you have glaucoma with moderate to severe optic nerve damage, or if you’re pregnant or nursing.
Choosing the Right Approach
Your age is the biggest factor in deciding how to correct myopia. Children and teenagers are still growing, so the priority is both correcting their current vision and slowing further progression with tools like specialty lenses, ortho-K, or atropine drops. Outdoor time during daylight hours adds a meaningful layer of protection on top of any optical or pharmaceutical approach.
Adults with stable prescriptions have the full menu of surgical options available. Mild to moderate myopia with adequate corneal thickness points toward LASIK or SMILE for the fastest recovery. Thin corneas or high-contact-sport lifestyles make PRK the safer structural choice despite the slower healing. Prescriptions beyond what laser surgery can safely treat open the door to implantable lenses.
For adults who aren’t ready for surgery or don’t qualify, glasses and contact lenses remain effective, reliable, and carry essentially zero risk. There’s no medical urgency to pursue surgical correction. It’s a quality-of-life decision, not a health necessity, as long as your myopia is being corrected and monitored.