It doesn’t matter how trendy your glasses frames are, they don’t quite stay on your face when you’re swimming or dancing or kicking a ball around.  Daytime contact lenses may be an alternative, however some people find them uncomfortable, they get dry eyes or they’re scared of losing them in the water or on the playing field.

If this sounds like you, and you want to stay active without the hassle of glasses or daytime contact lenses, try ortho-k.   Imagine no more glasses and no contact lenses for outdoor and indoor sporting and recreational activities like polo, yachting, fishing, soccer, football, dancing, ballet, swimming, scuba diving, surfing, diving, extreme sports.

No more glasses no more daytime contact lenses with ortho-k

Shortsightedness is a common eye disorder according to article at Contact lens Spectrum http://www.clspectrum.com/article.aspx?article=103489, and while most available solutions vary from glasses to contact lenses or eye surgery, a uniformly acceptable solution has yet to be found.  This article raises an interesting point “The more important question for young people and their parents is: how can the growth of myopia be slowed down?”  I know for myself, I started wearing glasses at 15 years of age and my eyesight has worsened over time.  It finally stabilised there abouts at the age of 25+ at a fairly high prescription.  Contact lenses cause me to have dry eyes and sometimes swelling- sound familiar?

This main point this article makes is that orthokeratology is one corrective treatment modality that has exhibited great potential in myopia management (also known as corneal reshaping) and provides definite patient satisfaction with the results.  It reports findings of first-fit ortho-k success rate of 73.5 percent, with 16 percent requiring two pairs for a successful fit and 7.4 percent needing three pairs, this could make a strong argument for the ease of fit as well as the level of patient satisfaction that is obtainable with this modality.  When I think of how many different contact lenses I’ve tried over the years because I wasn’t happy with the results, this evidence is promising.  I’m getting my eye checked this week as my contacts are causing me problems again.

 Finally, this article discussed that while there was interest in overnight ortho-k for young people (based upon the numerous clinical studies performed in recent years), these studies had only evaluated subjects over a period of no more than two years and often for only six months or less.  This article summarises the need for a large multicenter longitudinal study that evaluates eye growth, effects of regression over time, ocular health, and corneal thickness change.

Definitely something to think about.

This is a statement we hear often from our clients- they hate contacts because they get dry eyes, soft lenses tear, they fall out at the most incovenient times like when swimming, surfing, dancing, clubbing etc; or they just don’t like the inconvenience of having to put them in every morning.  Fair enough, I’ve been there too!

So how is ortho-k, which uses contact lenses any different?

Well, basically you wear the specially fitted lens at night to reshape your cornea, so that in the morning you can see without visal aids.  These lenses are generally no more difficult to insert or remove than any other similar contact lenses.  Once the Orthokeratology lens is on your eye, it does not physically push on the eye to change its shape. Instead it induces hydrostatic pressures in the tear film between the contact lens and the eye. This process of fluid dynamics causes a redistribution of the cells on the surface of the cornea (Corneal Epithelium).    Simply, these cells are redistributed slightly to change the surface shape of the eye and therefore change the focusing power of the eye.  The structure and integrity of the cornea is not affected. The cells return to their normal distribution within a few days after orthokeratology is discontinued.  If you stop wearing the lenses regularly while you sleep, your vision will return to its original state in as little as 72 hours.

If you’re wondering if these orthokeratology lenses may be right for you, but you’re worried about any pain, our clients have found that initially there was a slight awareness of the therapeutic lens. But you will not feel the lenses when you sleep and there is no sense of physical corneal change…. just visual improvement when the lenses are removed.

We’d love to know what other are reasons why contact lens wearers hate wearing contacts, let us know!

Back in the day when I could go body surfing at Torquay with the girls over summer, my contacts used to tear after a few days, and get gritty sort of freyed edges which really hurt. At the time I wore monthly soft lenses, and three days is all they would last after swimming in the surf. (Dailies would have been too expensive for me then.) If this happens to you, or you’re worried about losing a lens in the surf, try orthokeratology lenses that you wear at night, which means you don’t need glasses or contact during the day. Surf’s up!