UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Sight For Snore Eyes: Vision Fixed In Bed
By Thomas Moore
Health correspondent
Updated: 08:56, Friday July 20, 2007

Short-sighted people can now get 20/20 vision with a revolutionary contact lens which corrects their eyesight while they sleep.

The treatment can be reversedThe Ortho K lens is a rigid plastic disc that flattens the front of the eyeball, restoring normal vision.

Users take them out when they wake up and the eyes retain their new shape for the rest of the day.

Unlike laser surgery the treatment can be reversed. The prescription can also be changed as eyesight deteriorates with age.

Optician David Thomas has used the lenses on a number of his patients.


"It's basically the same as a brace in dentistry. It moulds the surface of the cornea, flattens it and therefore makes the eye normally sighted," he said.

"A short sighted eye is usually too big."

Opticians monitor the changing shape of the eyeball with a machine that maps the contours of the cornea.

The lens can be refined to even out natural ridges on the surface of the eye.

But other eye specialists are concerned about the long-term effects of wearing the lenses.


The new lensDr Larry Benjamin, from the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, warned: "It's a technique with proven benefit in people with a small amount of short sight.

"However, in a small number of people there can be serious side affects such as an eye infection which can damage the vision."

Peter Todd-Jones has used the lenses for 10 days. Before he could barely read the top line of an eye chart.

Now he has perfect vision.

He said: "I'd heard the miracle stories - that you put them in one night and the next night you've got 20/20 vision.

"It's pretty close to that. I expected it to take some time but it's been very, very good."
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