The Essilor Stellest lens is a new spectacle lens specifically designed for myopia control in children, where at high enough levels, can cause sight threatening complications.

What Makes Stellest Different?

Traditional corrective lenses simply focus light so you can see clearly. They don’t do anything to address worsening myopia. Stellest, on the other hand, uses a clever optical trick: HALT® (Highly Aspherical Lenslet Target) technology. The lens has a central (≈ 9 mm) clear zone that corrects distance vision, surrounded by many tiny aspherical “lenslets” arranged in rings. These lenslets create a volume of myopic defocus — essentially a signal to the eye to slow its growth.

In simpler terms: the eye sees a sharp image for regular viewing, but also receives “cues” from the surrounding zones that help reduce the rate at which the eyeball elongates (which is what makes myopia worsen).

Recent randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses demonstrate that the Stellest lens can reduce myopia progression by approximately 50–60% over the first year compared to single vision lenses, as measured by both spherical equivalent refraction (SER) and axial length (AL) elongation.^[1-3

Efficacy appears highest in the first 6–12 months, with initial myopia control rates of 60–80%, but this effect may decline to 35–55% over two years.^[1] The magnitude of effect is similar to other advanced spectacle lens designs, such as DIMS (Hoya MiyoSmart), and is substantially greater than traditional progressive addition lenses.^[1][3-4]

Things to Keep in Mind

• Although Stellest is marketed in many countries, it only recently gained U.S. FDA authorization (as of September 2025) for children ages 6 to 12, both to correct myopia (with or without astigmatism) and to slow its progression.
• Even with good results, Stellest isn’t a 100% guarantee — individual results vary.
• It's one tool among several in the myopia control toolkit: options like low-dose atropine, orthokeratology, or specially designed contact lenses might also be useful, depending on the case.
• Check with our qualified optometrists to see whether Stellest is suitable in your child’s region and for their specific visual prescription.^3]

References:

Essilor

https://www.essilor.com/ca-en/products/stellest/

U.S. Food and Drug Administration

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-authorizes-marketing-first-eyeglass-lenses-slow-progression-pediatric-myopia