Essilor Stellest glasses lenses: parents' guide

• Essilor® Stellest® combines sharp vision with HALT technology to slow down your child’s myopia progression.
• Stellest glasses are safe and easy to use, just like regular single vision glasses.
• Effective and clinically proven, Essilor Stellest lenses are a strong treatment option for children with myopia. They require consistent, full-time wear to deliver optimal results.

The main problem of myopia (near-sightedness) is blurry vision while looking across the room or out of a window. Myopia develops when the eye grows more quickly than the expected rate in childhood. With an eyeball that is longer than normal for a child's age, the eye focuses light rays poorly when looking at far objects. Wearing Essilor® Stellest® lenses helps slow myopia progression (worsening) by slowing this excessive growth.

Essilor Stellest is an innovative, glasses (spectacle) lens designed to slow myopia progression in children. Stellest lenses emerged from a joint research and development partnership in 2018 with Wenzhou Medical University in China.¹ They are recommended for children who are starting to develop myopia, or already have myopia, or are going through worsening myopia.¹

Let’s look at how these lenses work.

Standard spectacle lenses only work for vision correction – providing clear vision, but no protection against future worsening of myopia.

Essilor® Stellest® spectacle (glasses) lenses use Highly Aspherical Lenslet Target (HALT) technology, slowing down myopia progression in children and teenagers, while providing clear vision to correct myopia.²

Each Stellest lens contains your child’s prescription right across the lens, to bring sharp and comfortable vision for the wearer. There is a clear central zone (about 9 mm wide), and HALT technology uses more than a thousand tiny lenses (called ‘lenslets’) spread over 11 rings on the surface of the lens.³ These lenslets create a volume of ‘defocus’ signal for the eye, which tells it to slow down the faster rate that it is growing towards the more normal rate expected in childhood. Spaces between the rings allow your child to still see clearly in the distance and up close, including when moving their eyes to look around.⁴

In children whose eyes are still developing, keeping the eye growth process in check is key to slowing down myopia progression. 

Essilor® Stellest® lenses are suitable for a wide range of prescriptions or powers that includes up to high levels of myopia and children who also have astigmatism. Made from strong polycarbonate lens material, the lens material is lightweight and durable – making it an ideal choice for young or active children.⁵

Essilor Stellest lenses come with an anti-reflective coating as standard, and in 2024 Essilor introduced the option to add sunglass tints for protection from sunlight.⁶ Tinted lenses can help children and teenagers by reducing glare and sensitivity to light for more comfortable vision during outdoor activities.⁷

If your child has myopia, they’ll need glasses (spectacles) or contact lenses to see clearly. Choosing between Essilor® Stellest® glasses or specialized contact lenses (both of which can slow down myopia worsening in kids) typically depends on your child’s lifestyle, hobbies and your family preferences. Each approach has unique advantages, so some children even wear both on alternative days – not at the same time!

Stellest glasses are simple, familiar, and convenient —put them on in the morning, wear them through daily activities, and take them off at bedtime. 

Younger children might find it easier to wear glasses compared to contact lenses, which require careful handling and good hygiene habits to reduce the risk of eye infection. On the other hand, older or more responsible kids may prefer contact lenses for sports, outdoor activities, or for aesthetic reasons. 

The availability of treatments to slow myopia progression in children also varies by country. Ultimately, picking the right option will come down to a discussion between you, your child, and their optometrist or eye doctor.

The Essilor® Stellest® lens has consistently demonstrated its effect in slowing eye growth and myopia in children with research dating back to 2018. The first key study was a 2-year clinical trial² involving nearsighted children aged 8 to 13 years old, which is still ongoing today. The extended 5-year results⁸ of this study were published in 2025, which further supported the long-term effectiveness and safety of the Stellest lens. 

The key findings from research were that Essilor Stellest lenses:

• Slowed eye growth by at least half²
• Reduced the worsening of myopia by 1.75D (7 steps) over 5 years compared to those wearing single-vision lenses⁸
• Reduced the risk of progressing to high (severe) myopia by 30%⁸

These results were achieved in children who wore their glasses at least 15 hours per day, 7 days per week by their fourth year. Compared to single vision spectacles, both eye growth and worsening of myopia were slowed by at least half. This showed that Stellest lenses substantially slow myopia progression.

What’s reassuring about Essilor® Stellest® lenses is that the vision quality is just as good as standard glasses. The treatment areas of the Stellest lens are nearly invisible,⁵ and organised in a way that allows children to see clearly far away and up close, without interfering with the natural function of the eyes.

Whether it’s looking through the centre of the glasses, or through the outer parts of the lenses, the image clarity (visual acuity) in Stellest is similar to standard glasses.^4,9 Children can achieve 20/20 vision in Stellest lenses, the same as if they were wearing regular glasses that correct myopia.³ Research has also proven that Stellest lenses are no different to normal glasses in terms of eye muscle coordination, focusing ability, or depth perception.⁹

Essilor Stellest lenses are easy to adapt to, with 90% of children adapting to Stellest within the first 3 days and 100% within 1 week.³ While it can take some children time to get used to new glasses, the adjustment period should be short, and no more than a week.  

Wearing time is very important when using Essilor® Stellest® lenses to treat myopia. You should encourage your child to wear their glasses full-time (as their main pair of glasses), except when sleeping or showering. This covers Essilor’s recommendation of wearing Stellest lenses “during all waking hours – at least 12 hours per day, every day.”¹

This is rule is true for other myopia control treatments, including glasses or contact lenses for myopia. Myopia treatments work best when worn full-time and every day.² If the lenses are not being worn on some days, or being worn for a shorter period of time each day (e.g. just at school and not at home), then the level of effectiveness will likely be reduced. 

Essilor® Stellest® glasses lenses are a clinically proven and effective long-term solution to manage vision problems in children with myopia. Ask your optometrist or eye doctor to find out whether Stellest lenses are available in your country, determine your child’s suitability, and answer any questions you may have on kids, glasses and myopia.

Product disclaimer: Please note that not all of the myopia treatments described on MyKidsVision.org are available in all countries. Check with your child's optometrist or eye doctor for more information and advice.