Ortho-k is Safe

That should be the headline for patients and parents who are attracted to the vision problem solving technique we refer to as Ortho-k. Many people I interact with on a daily basis seem to have doubts about that statement. Let me put those concerns to rest!

ALL contact lenses reshape the surface of the eye to some extent. Rigid Gas Permeable lenses being less flexible than the eye itself, cause the greatest shape changes. All Eye Doctors intuitively know this because they refine their eyeglass prescriptions based on whether the patient will wear their glasses primarily prior to lens insertion or after lens removal. But most Eye Doctors do not own the equipment to visualize those changes.

And why should they? We have been fitting rigid lenses for over five decades, all without the equipment to visualize those unintended changes, and all without even the problems so common with soft contact lens wear.

An Ortho-k lens merely creates a preplanned, preprogrammed, and closely monitored shape change as opposed to the unplanned, unintended and unobserved changes of the past. In fact, since Ortho-k lenses are mostly prescribed for sleep wear only, they are usually worn less than 8 hours a day as opposed to the 14-18 hours a day for daytime wear lenses.

So whether you are considering being fit into Ortho-k lenses for distance correction, to eliminate your reading glasses, as an alternative to LASIK surgery or for the prevention of nearsightedness. You owe it to yourself to consider what is, in my opinion, one of the safest vision correction options available.