Now Available Direct Insurance Billing*

Orthokeratology

Do you have a child or grandchild who is nearsighted or myopic? Are they between the ages of 6 and 18? Do their prescriptions keep getting progressively worse every visit to the eye doctor? If so Ortho K could be for them!

Ortho K (short for orthokeratology) is a non-surgical procedure using specially designed contact lenses that act as a retainer, to gently reshape the curvature of the eye overnight. You insert the lenses each night before bed and the lenses gently change the curvature of the cornea while you sleep. Upon wakening, you remove the contacts and your vision is clear without glasses or contacts for the remainder of the day. Each night the process is repeated.

Depending on the strength of your prescription, your doctor will design the Ortho K lens mold to obtain the change needed to achieve clear vision. The best candidates for Ortho K are kids with prescriptions ranging from -0.50D up to -6.00D and with no greater than -1.75D of astigmatism. The elastic tissue of the eye is not harmed by this daily process. Perhaps an analogy that most of us have seen would be the ridges formed on the ankles by a snug-fitting pair of socks. The ridges eventually go away and the tissue remains healthy. Ortho K is reversible. It is not a permanent alteration of tissue.

Benefits of Ortho K

One of the great advantages of Ortho K is that it is one of the most effective myopia control methods that are available to slow down myopic progression in children. The more myopic your child becomes the more at risk they will be later in life for retinal detachments, glaucoma, posterior subcapsular cataracts, and myopic maculopathy (similar disease process to macular degeneration). To put it another way, slowing myopic progression by 1 diopter reduces the risk of myopic maculopathy by 40%!

In addition to the many ocular health benefits to keeping your children or grandchildren’s myopia from progressing, Ortho K also offers convenience to those kids who do sports or who do not like wearing regular contact lenses or spectacles.

If this sounds like something that you and your child would be interested in, please contact the doctors at Family Eyecare Center for a consultation appointment. Alternatively, if you’re still curious about Ortho K, check out the articles and testimonials below:

Efficacy, Predictability, and Safety of Long-Term Orthokeratology
Visual Acuity and Over-Refraction in Myopic Children Fitted with Soft Multifocal Contact Lenses

Patient experience with Ortho K

When Amanda came for her regular annual checkup late last year due to the pandemic situation Dr. Leroy had told us that her myopia had increased substantially and therefore Amanda would need to start using a combination of an RX eye drops daily and her glasses and contacts power- prescription would change to a much high grade, or if we were willing to learn more about it, there was this opportunity to explore that would cost initially much more with very high chances of positive results and therefore worth it investigating. The Ortho K lenses. These lenses that the patients only use during their sleep every night and as the cornea shapes improve, vision improves, and consequently Amanda’s myopia would be contained and diminished over time. Initially, we knew not only cost but also hard work from both parts patient and doctor to adjust, and craft to the eyes but honestly as soon as Amanda was successful wearing them and being able to see without glasses we could see how amazing this treatment is. For all the other parents and patients that are willing to learn more about the Ortho K lenses as we did, I would strongly recommend that you try it don’t be afraid about the cost is absolutely worth it every single cent and your third party health plan might help you pay for it. 

Dr. Leroy is absolutely amazing at helping us (you) to request through RX and letter to the insurance plan and most of all to ensure that the patient in our case Amanda has everything she needs and knows how to be successful with the treatment. We are very lucky to have her as our optometrist. Thanks so much, Moreira family.

Maybe your child is a little intimidated by the idea of Ortho K lenses. If so, show them this video! Another of our patients, Anya, made this to show other kids like her how to handle them.