Orthokeratology, or ortho-k, is a non-surgical procedure that employs specially constructed contact lenses to help correct myopia, astigmatism, and other refractive abnormalities. This is known as corneal reshaping, refractive treatment, or vision shaping.

These lenses are effective for myopia correction in both children and adults. It temporarily reshapes your cornea as you sleep, which will gradually affect the general shape of the eye and enhance light refraction into the retina.

This breakthrough treatment reduces the need for patients to wear glasses or contact lenses during the day. In addition, because ortho-k is a meticulously developed contact lenses that helps reshape your eye as you sleep, you will wake up with clear, crisp, and natural vision.

How Do They Take Care of Short-Sightedness?

Orthokeratology, in the form of nightly lenses, shapes the cornea gently, making ortho-k lenses a perfect choice for short-sighted children of all ages. Using a gentle solution such as ortho-k lenses is especially beneficial for individuals who are too young to benefit from invasive vision correction procedures, such as laser surgery.

The advantages of ortho-k overnight lenses extend beyond aiding children with nearsightedness to adults as well. Orthokeratology is a fantastic temporary solution to short-sightedness and can help treat anyone with mild to moderate myopia/short-sightedness.

How Do These Lens Function?

Orthokeratology begins when the ortho-k lenses are placed in the eyes before going to sleep at night. Once placed, the lenses will lie on the surface of the eye securely and with minimum pain, exactly like a regular set of contact lenses.

The ortho-k lenses softly reshape the cornea overnight. The cornea is the portion of the eye that directs light to the fovea, which is the region of the eye that delivers picture impulses to the brain’s occipital lobe. With such restructuring, the occipital lobe begins to receive much sharper picture signals and has a lot simpler time deciphering the images it assists us in seeing.

The effects of using ortho-k lenses usually last around 24 hours. Therefore, users of ortho-k contacts should not worry about wearing glasses or contacts lenses all day during this period. Such advantages are especially beneficial for people who work in professions where prescription glasses are inconvenient and might contribute to eye strain when worn all the time.

What Benefits Do Overnight Lenses Provide?

As previously said, myopia, also known as short-sightedness or close-sightedness, is a prevalent condition in both adults and children. Laser surgery is one of the most common adult myopia treatment options today. It gives pleasant and long-lasting benefits as an effective and safe therapy. However, laser surgery is costly, and some patients are hesitant to utilise it for various reasons. Most notably because the surgery happens while the patient is awake, and the eyes can be extremely sensitive for weeks, if not months, after that.

Ortho-k overnight contact lenses might be an excellent temporary option for those who have myopia. Ortho-k lenses allow a user to spend additional time experimenting with an alternate answer to surgery. It is possible that using these overnight glasses greatly improves their quality of life. As a result, patients worried about eye surgery might use orthokeratology to determine whether surgery is essential for their myopia/short-sightedness.

The corneal reshaping procedure with orthokeratology may lead to decreased dependency on prescription glasses or lenses during the day for people who prefer to continue using nighttime ortho-k lenses.