Orthokeratology (OK therapy) is a non-surgical process of gently reshaping the cornea during sleep using gas permeable rigid lenses of a specific design.
After you wake up, you remove the night ortholenses and see perfectly all day long without the use of glasses or contact lenses. OK therapy works best for mild to moderate myopia.
This is how myopia can be treated without surgery . The FDA has approved the use of ortholenses for myopia up to -6.0D and regular astigmatism up to -1.75D.
The first step to treating myopia without surgery is a comprehensive ophthalmological examination to determine whether you are a candidate for OK therapy. It includes a standard ophthalmological examination and assessment of the shape of the cornea.
If, according to the opinion of an ophthalmologist, it is possible for you to treat myopia without surgery, that is, orthokeratology , then lenses for OK therapy are immediately selected for you, or, if necessary, lenses with specific parameters are prescribed a day. When selecting lenses, the ophthalmologist advises and shows how to put on and remove lenses.
OK therapy is suitable for both adults and children who want to have high visual acuity during the day without wearing glasses or contact lenses. OK therapy is suitable for people who lead an active lifestyle and play sports. Orthokeratology without surgery allows you to see the world without glasses and lenses.
Planned replacement of ortholenses is required only once a year. It is performed in our ophthalmological center by highly qualified specialists.
Orthokeratological lenses - ortholenses cause different opinions, we will try to give an objective assessment based on the opinion of specialists - ophthalmologists and reviews of ortholenses / orthokeratological lenses .
Now you can purchase ortholenses (night lenses) on promotion for 18,000 (the promotional price includes: initial selection of ortholenses by an ophthalmologist, ortholenses, container, solutions for storage, cleansing and moisturizing drops)
How hard lenses for night wear work
In the evening you take a container with lenses and special manipulators.
Put on two hard lenses right before bed. The first few times it will be painful, but if you have worn regular soft ones, you will get used to it quickly. If not, it’s better to try daily lenses for a couple of weeks first, because it’s simply a shame to lose a hard lens due to inability to put it on or wear it (from the bathroom to the bed). After soft lenses, using hard night lenses is very, very easy, precisely because they hold their shape well. These lenses begin to press on the cornea, “lowering” its center and the tissues underneath it to a position natural for normal vision. A correctly designed lens does not “rape” the eye, but returns the focal length of the eye to its natural physiological length. To make it clearer, let me remind you that myopia is actually a stretching deformation of the eye.
The cornea has a fairly rigid collagen matrix, so it begins to “remember” the new shape established by the lens. Conventionally, after 3–5 nights of wearing, normal stable vision within 95% is achieved, and then the result is fully achieved in a couple of weeks. The first days you will need to wear either weak glasses (for example, for -5 on the first day it will be -3.5, then -2, then -0.5), or endure it.
Then you will need to follow the regime. To maintain their shape, hard lenses will need to be worn every night and sleep for at least 7 hours (and try no more than 10-11 in order to remove them in time). Less - your vision will deteriorate slightly during the day. More is not very scary, the main thing is not to abuse it for dozens of days in a row.
If you miss a night, your vision will drop slightly - the cornea will begin to take on a shape characteristic of your myopia. On the first day you will receive an undercorrection of -1 or -1.5, then - progressively, stabilization in the same time frame. If you skip a night and start wearing it the next night, everything will be fine again the next morning.
The only point: for those with vision down to -2.0, you can wear the lens every other night if desired.
Benefits of contact vision correction
New generation lenses made from innovative materials allow you to forget about poor vision for a long time. After all, you can sleep peacefully in such lenses day and night and not even take them off for several days. Not all models yet have these characteristics, but many manufacturers have already released a number of successful series of silicone hydrogel lenses.
What are the advantages of contact lenses:
- high visual acuity in different lighting conditions;
- brightness, contrast, excellent color rendition, good visibility of peripheral zones;
- there are no restrictions on physical activity, you can run, jump, dance;
- eyes can be protected from ultraviolet radiation with sunglasses.
In lenses, the eyes are less tired because they are not subjected to the same stress as when wearing glasses. The main thing is the right choice. Only a qualified specialist can select the optimally suitable model that matches a person’s lifestyle and occupation.
How to choose hard night lenses
You can’t just take these lenses and buy them at the pharmacy (in theory, of course, you can, but you shouldn’t do that)—you first need to get the exact parameters for your eye.
The procedure goes like this: after standard diagnostics, the clinic selects lenses from a suitcase with approximately 160 lens options. You try them on for about half an hour to an hour until you feel that this particular one fits perfectly (that’s why I recommend first learning how to wear one-day ones, otherwise the diagnosis will be quite unpleasant - in our country, for example, children often cry when their eyes are touch). Once you find your ideal lens with your eye, the optometrist will apply a fluorescent solution to it, which will glow under the IR illumination of the microscope. By looking at the circle on the corneal epithelium, you will be able to understand how correctly your “ideal” actually sat. After double checking, you will either receive ready-made lenses (if the clinic specializes in calculating them), or they will be ordered for you in the USA and will arrive in a couple of weeks. In our practice, given the not very large number of options to sort through (most often you need 10–20 of the most typical models), you will go home straight away with new lenses. Sometimes patients from lens manufacturers are sent to us for diagnostics to get results from a Scheimpflug camera (Pentacama), because we need a combination of ease of placing the lenses on the eye and their accuracy of selection. You need both sets of equipment - expensive diagnostics and a suitcase with a bunch of accessories.
These lenses are expensive, cost about 28 thousand rubles per pair, plus wisely you need to do 4 examinations during the first month, then once every 3 months. In general, even with regular contact lenses you need to check regularly, but few people do this.
Every year you need to throw out the old ones and buy new ones, without wearing them out too much. They also need a regular storage solution (the first portion), containers and manipulators - in general, everything you need. This is also usually included in the price, as is diagnostics.
If night lenses are chosen for children with progressive myopia (in order to stabilize the process due to peripheral defocus), there is another feature. Until the age of 18, according to the law, a parent bears full responsibility for his child, so the procedure for choosing and learning to use is done strictly together with mom or dad, both at 15 years old and at 6 years old. Yes, you can use them starting from about 6 years old; before that it makes no sense - the child will most likely lose them.
The following results were obtained during the study:
- After a year of wearing Stellest lenses, children experienced a slowdown in myopia progression by more than 60%, compared with children in the control group who wore single vision lenses.
- During the same time, 28% of children wearing Stellest lenses were able to prevent axial elongation of the eye. In the control group, elongation of the eyeball was noted in 100% of children.
- All children wearing Stellest lenses showed high visual acuity, rapid (within a week) adaptation to new lenses, and high satisfaction with the quality of their vision.
Thus, treatment of myopia in children can now become more effective, simpler and more affordable.
Oxygen access: why are they so cool and safe
There are a lot of good Russian models that are cheaper, but we use American ones - they are approximately twice as thin.
This immediately eliminates all other lenses from the selection options. Yes, there are cheaper options, but we use hard contact lenses when the patient needs comfortable vision without glasses and without surgery, or when it is necessary to stop progressive myopia in a child. If you want something cheaper, go with glasses, it’s more justified in terms of safety. So, despite the rigidity of the material, fluoro-silicone acrylate has a structure that does not interfere with the flow of oxygen to the eye (almost mythical 100 percent oxygen permeability), that is, night lenses are significantly safer than soft ones in this regard. Given the almost guaranteed limited wearing time (I know very few people who can regularly sleep 12 hours), safety requirements will be met almost automatically. This is a direct consequence: we do not have patients with complications from such lenses. But, really, it must be said that we are somewhat disingenuous when we talk about long-term wear: usually by the end of the year the patient gets so used to the fact that he can run, jump and swim freely that he really wants to get such vision, but is too lazy to put on lenses, and keep the schedule too.
Therefore, the patient usually comes for laser correction, having enjoyed life and counting the costs for the coming years. As a result, there are only a few hundred long-term cases of wearing hard night contact lenses in Russia - as a rule, these are those who use them due to the impossibility of other correction and unwillingness to wear glasses. Usually - female models and athletes, mainly boxers and hockey players.
Contact lenses for astigmatism and myopia
Until recently, high-quality correction of astigmatism was possible only with the use of complex glasses equipped with cylindrical lenses. With a high (more than 6D) degree of disruption of the sphericity of the lens and cornea, wearing such a correction device is accompanied by pain in the eyes and other unpleasant symptoms.
To create contact lenses with a similar purpose, a rigid design was used. In addition to discomfort for the user, prolonged wearing provoked a change in the shape of the cornea. Modern models are soft with a toric relief on one of the surfaces. In such products, the noted shortcomings are eliminated.
COOPERVISION Biomedics 1 day Extra
Toric series lenses are designed specifically to eliminate astigmatism and astigmatic defects in the optical path without laser correction. These products are intended for one-day wear. The special material provides reliable fixation, is characterized by good oxygen permeability and a relatively high concentration of water per unit volume (55%). There is no UV filter, so in bright sunlight you may need additional radiation protection.
ALCON Dailies Total 1
What are the best corrective products to choose for daily use? When answering this question, in addition to functionality, you need to check the wearing comfort. This model is created using a material that retains moisture on the surface of the product. This technology prevents direct contact of the lens with the eyes. The uniqueness of the method is protected by an international patent.
Improved consumer characteristics are ensured by special water distribution. The gradient structure of the formed layer is characterized by minimal optical distortions. In addition to the correct refractive index, the following advantages of ALCON Dailies Total 1 should be emphasized:
- the absence of silicone components in the contact area prevents the occurrence of allergic reactions;
- effective moisturizing creates favorable conditions to eliminate the effect of dry eyes;
- Comfort during long-term use is ensured by a smooth surface and good oxygen permeability.
PARAGON CRT 100
To correct the shape of the eye during sleep, night lenses are used for astigmatism and myopia. Beneficial changes last for more than 24 hours, so the next day you can eliminate the use of special corrective agents. The durability of the effect improves after regular use after 5-8 days.
Indications for refractive therapy using PARAGON CRT 100:
- maximum level of myopia (astigmatism) – 7D (3D);
- minimum user age – 6 years;
- temperature changes and other poor conditions that impede the normal use of glasses and regular daytime lenses;
- the impossibility of correcting visual defects through surgery;
- individual intolerance to contact lenses.
Who uses hard night lenses?
- Those who cannot correct, but want to walk without glasses.
- Those who engage in active sports (it’s hard to imagine a surfer with a fallen lens or a tennis player with glasses). And so I wore it at night and took it out for the day.
- Those who are waiting for vision correction and want to understand how it will be after (note: hard lenses should be stopped a month before the preoperative diagnosis).
- Those who live and work in regions where there are frequent changes from hot to cold (glasses fog up and interfere with comfortable work, for example).
- Children and adolescents with progressive myopia, when physical limitation of corneal mechanics is necessary.
- Those who are not sure that vision will stabilize after laser correction.
As a result of the research, the following data were obtained:
- 100% of children with Stellest lenses get clear vision;
- 90% of children fully adapt to lenses within 3 days;
- 94% of children feel comfortable wearing glasses with Stellest lenses.
How it works?
Treatment of progressive myopia is an urgent problem that many ophthalmological companies around the world are working on solving. Essilor has achieved a real breakthrough in this area. For 30 years, the company's employees have been active in research, collaborating with leading scientific institutes and experts in the field of myopia. The result is a first-of-its-kind eyeglass lens that corrects myopia while reducing disease progression using the HALT system
The essence of the technology is to create more than 1000 microlenses distributed over 11 annular zones. They induce a light signal in front of the retina. The optical power of each ring is precisely calculated based on several parameters so that the induction zone follows the shape of the retina. This, in turn, helps control the process of elongation of the eyeball.
Don't get confused
One more moment.
Everything that is written in the post regarding the safety of hard contact lenses applies only and exclusively to special lenses for night use during sleep. There are also hard contact lenses that are used for routine corrections, and those that are used after operations to create an additional exogenous frame of the eye. Almost none of the above applies to them; they are most often worn out of forced necessity. And one more important point: yes, there are hard lenses that are milled individually to fit the curve of the cornea (most often after transplantation or major operations) and provide ideal vision. Such corneoscreaal lenses have a mechanism for creating a liquid medium (tears) between the tissues of the cornea and the lens - they sit not on the cornea, but on the conjunctiva. They are done by only one clinic in Russia, as a “last chance” solution, the indications are extremely specific. If you're interested, I'll give you a tip in a private message.
Useful video
Lenses are effective means of vision correction. To choose the right optics, you need to take into account the purpose, rules of use, and diagnosis.
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Alexandrova O.M.
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2029
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Who is prescribed hard lenses?
Ophthalmologists recommend their patients to buy LCL in some cases. The fact is that they are able to correct many defects, including scars, the consequences of injuries and eye surgeries. In addition, they are widely used by people suffering from astigmatism, keratoconus and presbyopia, also called age-related farsightedness. Among other things, they are prescribed to people who, due to their professional activities, need the highest possible visual acuity, for example, jewelers, pilots, surgeons, etc. The use of LCLs in orthokeratological correction, in which wearing optical products is required only during sleep, is considered successful. At this time, hard night lenses for the eyes, using natural pressure, have an active effect on the cornea, thereby redistributing the load. At the same time, the upper layers of the epithelium are leveled.
The result of use is an improvement in the quality of vision, which persists throughout the day, and therefore completely eliminates the need to wear contact optics during the day.
Rule #1: Focus on optical power
Colored eye lens stores today offer a wide range of vision correction products for the most fastidious fashionistas. However, before you think about the right shade, make sure that the lens manufacturer you choose produces models that not only cover the color of the iris, but also provide the level of vision correction you need. For example, in our online store in St. Petersburg you can buy colored lenses with diopters from all manufacturers:.
| Bausch&Lomb price: 1050 rub. | Alcon price: from 1000 rub. | Price for Adria: from 1090 rub. |
Lens colors for your eyes are certainly important, however, if you choose a model with the wrong optical power, you risk sacrificing your health for the sake of beauty.
