If you don’t like wearing glasses or contacts, but don’t necessarily embrace the idea of having eye surgery, Clear Vision Optometry has an ideal solution for you. Orthokeratology, or Ortho-K, is an advanced corneal reshaping technique that can correct a variety of common vision problems without surgery. Clear Vision Optometry is proud to offer this gentle, state-of-the-art vision correction therapy at their office in Austin, Texas. If you live in the Austin area, and you want to ditch your glasses or contacts for good, call the office or book your appointment online today.
To understand how Ortho-K corrects vision, it’s important to understand how the corneas of your eyes work. The cornea is a transparent disc that sits over the lens of your eye, much like the crystal of a watch. It’s there for protection and to refract, or bend, incoming light rays so that the lens can focus them into a clear, sharp image before they reach the retina and optic nerve. Then, the optic nerve transmits the image to your brain.
When the shape of your cornea becomes deformed, light is improperly refracted before it reaches the lens, causing your vision to become slightly blurred or distorted.
When you wear glasses or contact lenses, their perfect curve is designed to “pre-refract” incoming light to compensate for the deformation in your cornea. Laser surgery goes a step further, correcting the shape of the cornea itself. The trouble is, some people don’t want to wear glasses or contact lenses, and not everyone is a suitable candidate for laser surgery.
That’s where Orthokeratology, or Ortho-K, comes in. Ortho-K is a cutting-edge technique that uses specially-designed contact lenses to reshape the surface of your eye as you sleep. You simply put the custom fitted prescription lenses in at bedtime, and when you remove them in the morning, you’ll have crisp, clear vision for the entire day.
Misshapen or deformed corneas cause different types of vision problems, depending on the exact nature of the deformation. The common problems that Ortho-K retainer lenses are designed to correct include nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism.
For Ortho-K to be effective, your prescription must be in the range of +2.00 to -6.00, with no more than -1.75 diopters of surface astigmatism.
Ortho-K is suitable for virtually everyone who has healthy eyes. Even people who aren’t usually able to wear contact lenses because of dry eye, allergies, or general discomfort can typically wear Ortho-K retainer lenses without any trouble. That’s primarily because you wear them while sleeping.
Dr. Trinh can fit Ortho-K lenses for young children, and studies have shown that Ortho-K can prevent children’s nearsightedness from worsening.
To rule out any possible ocular health issues that could preclude you from wearing Ortho-K lenses, you’ll have a comprehensive eye exam prior to starting the treatment.
Ortho-K can give you perfect or nearly-perfect vision for a day or two at a time, or possibly longer if you have flexible corneas.
By wearing Ortho-K retainer lenses every night, you can maintain improved vision for as long as you decide to continue using them. If you start wearing glasses or contact lenses or undergo vision correction surgery, simply stop wearing the Ortho-K lenses and your corneas will assume their previous shape once again.
Make an appointment with Dr. Trinh to see whether Ortho-K makes sense for you.
