'I've collided into pillars, glass': More cases of high myopia seen in Singapore
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SINGAPORE – Ms Candice Chong started wearing glasses when she was four. By the time she was 13, she had a lens prescription of around minus 10 dioptres (1,000 degrees) for each eye, and her myopia continued to worsen throughout her teenage years to reach a'I've collided into pillars, glass': More cases of high myopia seen in Singapore
SINGAPORE – Ms Candice Chong started wearing glasses when she was four. By the time she was 13, she had a lens prescription of around minus 10 dioptres (1,000 degrees) for each eye, and her myopia continued to worsen throughout her teenage years to reach around 2,000 degrees in each eye. High myopia is typically defined as short-sightedness of over minus 5 dioptres (500 degrees), though some experts argue that it should be minus 6 dioptres (600 degrees) and above. Excessive eye growth, or elongation of the eyeball, causes myopia. In some cases, myopes like Ms Chong, now 43, suffer from pathologic myopia, which in turn causes degenerative changes to the back of the eye. “Normal eyeballs are like fishballs, but for people like me, my eyeballs are the shape of a sausage... very stretched, elongated... and more fragile overall,” said Ms Chong. She started experiencing complications due to her high myopia not long after she turned 20. First, it was glaucoma. Then, she had cataract surgery in one eye, and then the other, in her 30s. In 2023, she underwent surgery to prevent a retinal tear in her left eye. Read more