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If you suffer from poor vision, you’ve likely explored different corrective treatments. You’ve probably worn glasses or contacts to see properly, but now you want to see without the use of corrective lenses. While LASIK seems like a good treatment option, the procedure may seem a little too invasive for your preferences.

Rather than continue using contacts or glasses all the time to correct your vision, you may want to explore a noninvasive treatment option: orthokeratology. Below, we’ll explain what this treatment is and why your eye doctor might recommend it to improve your eyesight.

What Is Orthokeratology and How Does It Work?

As mentioned above, orthokeratology is a noninvasive treatment for poor eyesight. This treatment is also called Corneal Refractive Therapy (CRT), Ortho-K, or Overnight Vision Correction. The corrective method uses gas permeable contact lenses to temporarily reshape a person’s corneas. As the corneas are reshaped, refractive issues like far-sightedness, near-sightedness, and astigmatism are reduced.

In the 1940s, optometrists discovered that glass lenses could reshape a person’s cornea. Over the decades, eye doctors have developed different kinds of lenses to not only improve vision but also correct the cause of the issue.

During the early stages of development, the treatment wasn’t wholly successful because of the design and materials eye experts used for Ortho-K lenses. As new lenses were developed, researchers tested the materials to see if they could effectively reshape the cornea as patients wore the lenses during the day.

In the 1990s, corneal topography was invented and allowed professionals to examine the eye’s curvature and create custom lenses that could successfully reshape the cornea. When rigid gas permeable lenses were invented, orthokeratology became a nighttime treatment. The base material for these lenses allows more oxygen to enter the eye to prevent dry eye and similar irritations.

Today, eye patients wear these FDA-approved lenses as they sleep so they can see clearly during the day—without the need for glasses or contacts. Depending on what your prescription is and how rigid your eyes are, you could see results in as soon as one day. Typically, though, patients see results in about four weeks.

What Vision Problems Does It Treat?

While you can use orthokeratology to treat near-sightedness, far-sightedness, and astigmatism, eye doctors have recently used this method to treat childhood near-sightedness. This process is still undergoing research, but the idea is that orthokeratology can slow down childhood myopia and prevent children from experiencing poorer vision as they age.

Children as young as five years old can wear Ortho-K lenses, but ultimately, their eye doctors should determine if they are ready for this treatment option.

Additionally, orthokeratology isn’t a permanent treatment for poor vision. You must wear the lenses every night to experience clear, sharp vision during the day. If you stop wearing your lenses on a regular basis, your vision will revert back to your original prescription. This deterioration can occur as soon as 72 hours after you’ve stopped using the lenses.

Who Is an Ideal Candidate for Orthokeratology?

As with LASIK and other corrective procedures, orthokeratology has some requirements—and not everyone is an ideal candidate for this treatment. To qualify for this procedure, you must meet the following requirements:

  • Have low or moderate amounts of near-sightedness
  • Have refractive issues no higher than -6.00
  • Have an astigmatism error no higher than -1.75

For best results, patients should have refractive errors of -1.00 to -4.00, though the treatment will work if your vision falls within the parameters listed above.

To discover if you’re a good candidate for orthokeratology, schedule a comprehensive eye exam with your eye doctor. If your test results show that you’re a good candidate, your eye doctor can fit you with temporary lenses until your custom lenses are ready. Then, your doctor will fit them to your eye, teach you how to insert and remove them, how to clean them, and how to care for them.

What Side Effects Does This Treatment Have?

Like most treatments, orthokeratology does have a few side effects. Since you’ll wear lenses, you’ll still face the same risks you would if you wore traditional contact lenses. If you don’t clean your Ortho-K lenses properly or regularly, you increase your chances of getting eye infections.

You may also experience the following side effects:

  • Dry eyes
  • Inflammation
  • Eye injury
  • Allergies

You may notice the following vision-related side effects during the first month of treatment:

  • Double vision
  • Starbursting
  • Ghosting

Follow your eye doctor’s care instructions as you clean and wear your lenses to avoid serious issues or injuries. If any of these symptoms last for more than a month, see your eye doctor immediately. He or she can determine the source of these issues and either provide you with new lenses or suggest a different treatment option.

 

If you’re interested in correcting your vision without undergoing surgery, talk to your optometrist about orthokeratology.

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