Veteran Orthokeratology Providers

OrthoKeratology (also known as OrthoK and Corneal Refractive Therapy – CRT) has a 50 year history of correcting myopia in children. In the early days of contact lenses, doctors noticed that their patients wearing hard contact lenses would report less blurry eyesight at distance after removing the contacts than they did before they put them in. They also noticed that some patients in these hard lenses vision changed less than people in just glasses. They discovered the reason for this was that lenses that had these effects fit flatter along the curve of the eye than standard contact lenses, exerting a gentle pushing effect which temporarily reduced the amount of nearsightedness for the wearers.

The practice of prescribing these “flatter” lenses went on for many years, until a company filed a special design and healthier contact lens plastic for approval by the FDA. The FDA approved accelerated orthok in the late 1990′s for children of all ages. The procedure involves the child putting an orthokeratology lenses (ortho k lenses) in their eye before bed – when the eyes are closed they don’t feel the lenses; while they sleep they undergo gentle corneal reshaping which results in corneal refractive therapy. Upon awakening when they remove the lens they see perfectly clear all day until bedtime, when they need to reinsert the lens. There is no age restriction on orthokeratology.

The Doctors at The Myopia Institute have over 60 years combined experience treating children and adolescents with Orthokeratology, Paragon CRT, Vision Shaping Treatment and other OrthoK technologies.

Corneal reshaping therapy options such as OrthoK, cornea refractive therapy including paragon crt (vision shaping treatment) are particularly helpful when seeking to improve eyesight in children with nearsightedness and astigmatism, and reduce change in vision , specifically myopia in children and may, in some cases reduce the risk of children with myopia advancing to high myopia.

To learn more, visit the myopia doctor directory and contact an eye myopia specialist near you.