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Orthokeratology in Tzaneen

Explore Orthokeratology lenses

Insertion of Orthokeratology contact lens into eye
Orthokeratology or Ortho-K as it is also known as is a non-surgical procedure. The specially designed contact lenses slightly change the shape of the cornea overnight. Yes, while you are sleeping! They provide clear vision during your awake hours without the need for additional visual correction.
 
 
We do Orthokeratology in Tzaneen!

Orthokeratology improves a broad spectrum of refractive errors up to certain extents. It corrects myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. Theses contact lenses are expertly designed and manufactured for each eye individually. They require careful and frequent follow-up appointments with your contact lens practitioner. 

How Does Orthokeratology work?

These contact lenses are specially designed to change the shape of your cornea while you sleep. These lenses create different forces within the fluid behind the lens. The pressure of the lid on the contact lenses is another force acting on the lens. These forces work on the orthokeratology lenses to work on the front surface of the cornea and then changes the shape of the cornea very slightly. This all happens when you are asleep and unaware of the work these lenses are doing. To give an example. For the treatment of myopia or shortsightedness, the lens is shaped flatter than the curve of the middle part of the cornea. This design reduces the refractive power of the eye in shortsightedness. The opposite for hyperopia or farsightedness. In this case, the lens is shaped with a steeper curve than that of the middle part of the cornea. This design makes the refractive power of the eye more. For treatment of myopia, the lens produces a flatter central cornea, correcting nearsightedness by decreasing the power of the eye. For hyperopia and presbyopia, the design of the lens steepens the central cornea, correcting long-sightedness by increasing the power of the eye.
 
Orthokeratology in Tzaneen
 

This is a very short exaggerated animation of how an Orthokeratology lens for Myopia will work. Before the lens touches the eye, the curve of the central cornea is quite steep. As the lens touches the eye and works during the night, the lens changes the curvature of the cornea slightly. When the lens is removed, the central cornea has a much flatter surface than before the treatment.

Again this is just an illustration and highly exaggerated.

 

How Long Does It Take To Work?

There is an improvement of unaided Visual Acuity already after one night of lens wear. The amount of time it will take to reduce the total power of the eye to plano is dependent on the prescription. To say this in other words. For a person with a prescription of -1.00 D, it will be faster to reach plano with treatment than for a person with a -5.00 D prescription. In total after two weeks of treatment, we want to the refractive power of the eye to be plano.