Watching your child’s eyeglass prescription get stronger year after year can cause you to worry. You don’t want their vision to be impacted so much that they struggle with their favorite activities or schoolwork.
Nearsightedness (myopia) is a common problem for many kids, and it often becomes worse as your child gets older, leaving parents wondering what they can do.
The good news is that there is a treatment. Orthokeratology — better known as Ortho-K — might be the solution you’ve been looking for.
In this post, Curtis Frank, OD, explains how Ortho-K works and why exploring this advanced myopia treatment option could be a game-changer for your child’s vision and quality of life.
Ortho-K lenses are custom rigid gas permeable contact lenses that your child wears while they sleep. While in place, the lenses gently reshape the front surface of the eye, enabling light to focus properly on the retina (the light-sensitive “back wall” of the eye).
When your child removes the lenses in the morning, they can enjoy clear vision throughout the day without worrying about glasses or contact lenses.
That said, it's important to note that Ortho-K doesn’t “cure” myopia. Instead, it temporarily corrects it, meaning your child will need to continue to wear the lenses each night to maintain the daytime benefits.
Clear daytime vision is a major advantage. However, these lenses also slow down myopia progression.
As your child’s eye becomes longer, the risk of developing certain eye diseases later in life also increases. Specifically, higher levels of myopia have been linked to retinal detachment, glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration.
Fortunately, because children's eyes are still developing, they’re often ideal candidates for myopia management using these special lenses.
In fact, multiple studies have shown that Ortho-K can significantly slow the progression of nearsightedness in many children. Starting treatment during childhood could make a big difference in your child’s vision and eye health now and throughout their adult years.
As noted, childhood is the ideal time to help “retrain” the eye and slow the progression of myopia.
But Ortho-K can be used in adults, too, particularly if your prescription has remained stable. While it won't slow myopia progression once the eyes have stopped growing, it can provide clear daytime vision without the need for glasses or soft contact lenses.
For adults, Ortho-K lenses can offer a nonsurgical alternative to LASIK and provide an effective option for people who don’t want to be bothered by eyeglasses or contacts during the day.
Ortho-K lenses are also a popular option for athletes, first responders, healthcare workers, and other people whose jobs or hobbies make glasses and daytime contacts less practical.
Whether you're exploring myopia management for your child or looking for an alternative to glasses or daytime contact lenses for yourself, Ortho-K is worth exploring.
To find out whether orthokeratology is a good fit for you or your child, request an appointment with Dr. Frank and the team at Vision and Ortho-K Center in Boston, Massachusetts, today.
