contact lens management
Improving Quality Of Life ... Today!
Contex introduces a vision shaping treatment with the OK E-System lens.
CORNEL LE BLANC, O.D.

Remarkable developments in contact lens materials, designs and technology over the last thirty years have produced more satisfied contact lens patients than we eyecare professionals ever thought possible. Even extremely high prescriptions are now relatively simple to prescribe. But we may have only seen the beginning of these advancements to help our patients achieve better vision. The FDA recently approved a relatively new treatment and it's been placed in our hands, my respected colleagues: modern overnight orthokeratology. Now is the time to add this life-changing procedure to your practice.

Change is in the air

The FDA recently approved the Contex OK E-System for overnight wear under the Bausch & Lomb Vision Shaping Treatment marketing umbrella. In the 1970s when Bausch & Lomb announced the release of soft lenses, some of us knew right away that we would never practice optometry in quite the same way. Many of us today see the same opportunity with overnight orthokeratology.

It's sure to please

I have been empirically prescribing the Contex OK E-System lens for almost four years. I had preconceived ideas that I could not evaluate the lens properly, that GP lenses were for the contact lens specialist, and that they would cause pain to my patients. I was also afraid that my responsibility would be more than I was prepared to accept.

But Fellow Clinicians, the consultants at Contex are well educated on how to advise you properly. Once I was over the initial fear of prescribing the lenses for overnight wear, I began to see amazing results. I saw young children with prescriptions of -5.00D and higher attend school with an unaided acuity of 20/10, and maintain that level of acuity for as long as 16 hours. I saw a -5.00D, 48-year-old female with a +1.50 add power who is now seeing 20/15 unaided in the distance and 20/25 at near for all her working hours uncompromised. Baseball, football, basketball players and swimmers express enjoyment and satisfaction that I have recommended this alternative to their glasses or contact lenses. We tell patients that myopes between 1.00D and 2.00D will probably achieve acuity of nearly 20/20 the next day, and the 2.00D to 4.00D myopes should reach full treatment results in about a week.

 I must share a special case. An 8-year-old boy, whose entire family suffers from high myopia, was 0-.50D and just beginning his myopia progression when we first saw him. With his family history, I decided to use orthokeratology as a therapeutic treatment to attempt to slow the obvious progression of myopia. This patient is currently almost twelve years old and until recently has slept in his Contex OK lenses only two nights a week. His unaided visual acuity is 20/15 and his progressive myopia has never progressed. We've recently reduced him to one night of wear per week.

Rise to the challenge

We need to become as well acquainted with Ortho-K as we are with prescribing hydrogel lenses and spectacles. Contex and Bausch & Lomb offer great education and training tools, so it's easy to get started. We now have the tools to enhance our patients' quality of life. Go ahead, join in, and begin offering overnight orthokeratology in your practice.

DR. LE BLANC IS IN PRIVATE PRACTICE IN LEESVILLE, LA. CONTACT HIM AT FAX (318) 448-9627.

Optometric Management, Issue: October 2005