Ortho-K / Myopia Control

Myopia is the most common refractive eye condition in the world and the leading reason for patients to wear glasses or contact lenses, or in some cases seek a more permanent solution by way of laser vision correction. However, if you want to enjoy clear vision without relying on glasses or contact lenses, but you also don’t want to or are unable to have laser vision correction, there is another option. This is known as myopia control, although you may also hear of it referred to as orthokeratology or ortho-k.

What is Myopia Control/Ortho-K?

Myopia control is an innovative new way of slowing and even halting the progression of myopia in patients. It can also enable patients to see clearly without glasses or contact lenses during the day, provided that they use the treatment consistently at night. It is also known as orthokeratology, corneal reshaping lenses, and several other names, but the treatments all work in the same way.

The process involves wearing special contact lenses that reshape your cornea while you sleep. These lenses are made from gas-permeable material, making them perfectly safe to wear overnight and as you sleep, they gently apply pressure to the surface of your eye in order to make it the more generic shape needed. In doing so, the light that enters your eye will be refracted more directly onto the retina, which turns the light into signals which your brain then interprets as clear and concise images. When you wake and remove your lenses, you should be able to see properly without needing any glasses or other contact lenses.

Why is Myopia Control So Important?

There are a number of reasons why getting myopia under control is so important, but predominantly, it is to lower your risk of developing vision-threatening complications that are associated with severe myopia in the future. These include the following:

Glaucoma. Patients who have severe myopia are 300% more likely to suffer from glaucoma in the future.
Retinal detachment is 1000% more likely in patients with high levels of myopia.
Cataracts, which have also been linked to high myopia levels.
Macular degeneration, which is a leading cause of vision loss in the senior generation.

Am I a Good Candidate for Myopia Control?

The good news is that the majority of patients are considered to be good candidates for myopia control. However, you will still need to be assessed to ensure that you meet the specific requirements of the myopia control treatment used by your eye doctor. Ultimately, patients will need to have myopia values that fall within specific parameters and healthy eyes to be considered for the treatment.

Myopia control is also being regularly used in children as young as seven years old to help slow the progression of their myopia and reduce their risk of experiencing severe myopia in later life.

If you’d like to discuss myopia control in more detail, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our experienced eye care team in Waynesboro, VA today.

To learn more about Myopia Control,
please visit the Institute for Control of Eye Myopia In Children website,

Here