Photobiomodulation Therapy: The Dawn of Myopia Control

TL;DR

This review explores how light exposure, especially red, blue, and violet light, may help control myopia by influencing eye development through complex biological mechanisms.

Contribution

The paper reviews recent findings on photobiomodulation as a potential strategy for myopia prevention, emphasizing the role of specific light wavelengths.

Findings

Red, blue, and violet light exposure may help control axial growth and refractive changes linked to myopia.

Nonvisual opsins and spectrum-specific influences play a role in the complex pathways of light's effect on myopia development.

Photobiomodulation shows promise as an intervention, but the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood.

Abstract

What are the main findings?
Light exposure potentially influences myopia development through a variety of proposed mechanisms, although a full understanding of the mechanisms is still lacking.Recent research into the role of nonvisual opsins and spectrum-specific influences on myopia development has highlighted the complexity of these potential pathways.

Light exposure potentially influences myopia development through a variety of proposed mechanisms, although a full understanding of the mechanisms is still lacking.

Recent research into the role of nonvisual opsins and spectrum-specific influences on myopia development has highlighted the complexity of these potential pathways.

What are the implications of the main findings?
Future myopia prevention strategies may utilize promising findings featuring both red, blue, and violet light exposure as a means to control axial growth and refractive changes.While there is still much to be explored, recent findings have suggested several potential mechanisms through which light influences myopia development.

Future myopia prevention strategies may utilize promising findings featuring both red, blue, and violet light exposure as a means to control axial growth and refractive changes.

While there is still much to be explored, recent findings have suggested several potential mechanisms through which light influences myopia development.

As the prevalence of myopia, or near-sightedness, continues to rise globally, it becomes imperative to determine the mechanisms driving myopia so that appropriate interventions to mitigate it can be developed. Light appears to be critical for normal ocular development, and over the past several decades research has explored the connection between light exposure and myopia development. This review explores the growing field of photobiomodulation, or the use of light to modulate biological processes, to prevent myopia development. To complete this review, relevant texts published from January 1990 to December 2025 were retrieved from the PubMed database using a combination of search terms covering myopia and ocular development, light exposure conditions related to myopia, myopia development in relation to circadian and diurnal regulation, nonvisual opsins and myopia, and light-induced ocular damage. Through this review, we see that photobiomodulation offers a potential intervention to control myopia progression, but the mechanisms behind light’s influence on ocular development remain complex and incompletely understood. This review aims to summarize what is currently known to serve as a basis for future research and to delineate important findings.

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