Myopia (short sightedness): symptoms and treatment options
The eye focuses light in front of the retina, so near objects are clear and distant ones are blurred. It is the refractive error most commonly treated with laser vision correction.
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Quick answer
Myopia means the eye focuses light in front of the retina rather than on it, so distant objects are blurred while near vision stays clear. It is usually corrected with glasses or contact lenses, and in adults it can often be reduced or removed with laser vision correction or a lens procedure, depending on the measurements.
General educational information about a subject, not an assessment of your own eyes. Suitability and treatment decisions are made by a qualified ophthalmologist who has examined you.
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Myopia (short sightedness)
Myopia is the most common reason people look into laser vision correction, and the one whose vocabulary causes the most confusion: short sightedness, near sightedness and myopia all describe the same thing. The eye is either longer than the focusing power of its cornea and lens can cope with, or its focusing surfaces are steeper than they should be. Light comes to a focus before it reaches the retina, and everything at a distance is soft.
The practical question is not what myopia is but what can be done about a particular degree of it, and that turns on measurements rather than on the word.
What it is, and why it is measured in dioptres
A prescription written in negative dioptres describes how much the focus needs to be moved backwards to land on the retina. The number is a description of the correction required, not a severity grade, which is why two people with the same figure can have quite different eyes.
Short sightedness often begins in childhood and increases until growth settles. Progression is the one part of it that can be acted on in children, separately from correcting the vision they have today.
What can correct it
Glasses and contact lenses correct the focus without changing the eye. Laser vision correction reshapes the cornea so the eye focuses without them, and lenticule extraction does the same thing through a small incision instead of a flap.
Above a certain prescription, the amount of corneal tissue a laser procedure would need to remove becomes the limiting factor, and a lens-based option such as an implantable lens is considered instead. Where that line falls is decided by measurements, including corneal thickness and shape.
Stability, and what happens years later
Treatment is planned around a prescription that has stopped changing. In an eye that is still progressing, the result may drift with it, and the honest answer to "will it last" is that it depends on whether the underlying refraction has settled.
A small residual prescription or a partial return of short sightedness later is possible after any refractive procedure. It is measured at follow-up and may be left alone, corrected with glasses, or treated again.
Also known as myopia, short sightedness, short-sightedness, nearsightedness, short sight
Questions about Myopia (short sightedness)
Each answer below is the short version; the question links to the page that carries it in full, with sources.
- What is short sightedness (myopia)?
Short sightedness is a condition in which light from distant objects comes to focus in front of the retina instead of on it, which makes distance vision blurred while close vision stays relatively clear.
- What causes short sightedness?
Short sightedness is caused by the shape of the eye, meaning its length and the curvature of the cornea, and it develops from a combination of inherited tendency and environmental factors such as time spent on close work.
- Can short sightedness get worse?
Yes, particularly in childhood and the teenage years, when the eye is still growing. Progression usually slows and then stabilises in early adulthood, though it does not stabilise at the same age for everyone.
- Can short sightedness be corrected permanently?
The focusing error can be corrected permanently by laser surgery in suitable eyes, in the sense that the corneal reshaping does not reverse. The eye can still change with age, so the prescription can drift later in life.
- Can short sightedness be treated with laser eye surgery?
Yes, short sightedness is the refractive error most commonly treated with LASIK. How much can be corrected for a given eye depends on corneal thickness and shape rather than on the prescription alone.
- What are the options for high short sightedness?
The options for high short sightedness are laser procedures where the cornea can safely spare the tissue, and lens-based options such as an implantable lens where it cannot. Which applies to you depends on your measurements.
- What causes short sightedness in children?
Short sightedness in children results from the eye growing slightly too long for its focusing power, with both inherited tendency and environmental factors contributing.
- Can short sightedness in children be slowed down?
Progression of short sightedness in children can be slowed, and options include specific spectacle lens designs, contact lens approaches and medication drops. Suitability and monitoring are clinical decisions.
- Can LASIK correct short sightedness?
Short sightedness is the most commonly treated refractive error with LASIK. Whether your particular prescription is within a range that can be safely corrected depends on your corneal thickness and other measurements.
- Can high myopia be treated with LASIK?
Higher prescriptions can sometimes be treated, but the amount of tissue the correction requires rises with the prescription, so corneal thickness becomes the deciding factor more often than the prescription itself.
- Can SMILE treat high short sightedness?
SMILE is used at higher short sighted prescriptions than some older surface techniques, but what can be treated still depends on the cornea rather than on the prescription alone.
- Which procedure is suitable for high short sightedness?
The limiting factor is how much corneal tissue the correction requires, not the procedure name. Techniques that remove less tissue, and lens-based options, come into their own as prescriptions rise.
All 17 Myopia questions, searchable
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Related subjects
- Astigmatism
The cornea is curved unevenly, so light is focused differently across different axes and the blur is not the same in every direction. It commonly occurs alongside short or long sightedness.
- Presbyopia
The natural lens stiffens with age and can no longer change focus enough for close work. It is a change in the lens, not in the cornea, which is why corneal laser treatment alone does not remove it.
- Keratoconus
The cornea thins and becomes irregular, so vision is distorted in a way glasses do not fully correct. It changes which refractive options are open, and it is usually the reason a laser procedure is ruled out.
- LASIK vs SMILE
A flap procedure against a flapless one. The difference readers care about is what happens to the surface of the eye, not which laser is better.
- How LASIK works
The flap, the two lasers, and what the surface of the eye does afterwards.
- How SMILE works
Lenticule extraction explained: what the laser cuts, and what it removes.
- Dubai
The emirate where most of the UAE refractive surgery capacity is, and the one most international patients travel to. Licensing, clinic choice and what a quote should contain are the local questions.
- LASIK
Flap-based laser vision correction: a thin surface layer of the cornea is lifted, the tissue beneath it is reshaped, and the layer is replaced without stitches.
- Femto LASIK
LASIK in which the flap is created by a femtosecond laser instead of a mechanical instrument, which is a difference in how the flap is made rather than in what the procedure corrects.
- SMILE
Lenticule extraction: a lenticule is shaped inside the cornea and removed through a small incision, so there is no flap.
- SMILE Pro
The current generation of the SMILE platform, built around a faster laser and an automated centring step. The clinical idea is unchanged: a lenticule is removed through a small incision.
- PRK
Surface treatment: the outer layer of the cornea is removed and the tissue beneath it is reshaped, with no flap and no lenticule. The surface then regrows, which is why the first week is slower.
This page describes what is generally true about myopia (short sightedness). It is not a diagnosis, and it cannot say whether a treatment is suitable for you, because suitability depends on measurements taken during an examination.
Sources & further reading
We prefer primary sources. Where a claim comes from a manufacturer, a single study or a regulator, it is labelled as such below.
- Laser In Situ Keratomileusis (LASIK) Clinical reference StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf
The equivalent clinical reference chapter for LASIK, used so that comparisons describe both procedures symmetrically.
Used for How LASIK creates and manages a corneal flap; LASIK complication categories.
Link checked 22 September 2026
- The Royal College of Ophthalmologists Professional body The Royal College of Ophthalmologists (UK)
The UK professional body for ophthalmologists, which publishes standards and commissioning guidance for refractive surgery services.
Used for What good preoperative assessment and consent look like.
Link checked 22 September 2026
- Small Incision Lenticule Extraction (SMILE) Clinical reference StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf
A continuously updated clinical reference chapter covering SMILE indications, technique, outcomes and complications, written for clinicians.
Used for How the lenticule is created and removed; Indications and contraindications; Complication categories; Corneal biomechanics compared with flap-based surgery.
Link checked 22 September 2026
- Comparison of clinical outcomes following small incision lenticule extraction with the VISUMAX 800 and VISUMAX 500 Peer-reviewed literature Peer-reviewed literature (via PubMed Central) · 2025
A single comparative study of SMILE performed on the newer and older generations of the ZEISS platform. A single study, not a pooled analysis.
Used for The SMILE vs SMILE pro section, explicitly labelled as single-study evidence.
Link checked 22 September 2026
- European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons Professional body ESCRS
A European professional society for refractive and cataract surgery, publishing guidance and outcome registries.
Used for Refractive surgery outcome measurement and reporting.
Link checked 22 September 2026
- Eye Health Information Patient information National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health (US)
Condition-by-condition eye health information from a US government research institute, written for patients rather than for clinicians.
Used for Plain-language explanations of eye conditions and their symptoms; Healthy vision and screening guidance.
Link checked 23 September 2026
- EyeSmart: eye health information for the public Patient information American Academy of Ophthalmology
Patient-facing material from the largest ophthalmology professional body, covering conditions, tests and treatments outside refractive surgery.
Used for Cross-checking patient-facing explanations of non-refractive eye conditions; Describing what tests such as dilation and OCT involve.
Link checked 23 September 2026
- Blindness and vision impairment Health authority World Health Organization
The WHO overview of vision impairment, including the conditions that account for most avoidable sight loss worldwide.
Used for Framing uncorrected refractive error as a public health issue rather than a lifestyle one.
Link checked 23 September 2026
- Cochrane Library Peer-reviewed literature Cochrane
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Useful for readers who want to know how strong the pooled evidence is, not just what one trial found.
Used for Helping readers judge the strength of the evidence base.
Link checked 22 September 2026
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