Have any of you worn OrthoK contacts or heard of dangerous side effects?
Yes. Our son (he's 16) has been wearing these lenses for several years. He has a high degree of myopia, but when he put the lenses on at night, he could see perfectly all the next day. They didn't cause any limitations or discomfort. True, they could not be used when ill (with a high fever or malaise).
Indeed our son has had these, as we called them, night lenses for almost 2 years. He first started using them at the age of 14 precisely to stop the progression of myopia. From first class at school his vision started to deteriorate, and by the age of 14 his vision was -5.5-6. In addition to myopia, he has a slight astigmatism and also pre-tears of the retina, for which he has already had several retinal laser cauterisations.
Because of all these problems we decided on orthokeratic lenses mostly in hope to stop the progression of myopia.
I can say straight away that this is exactly what we succeeded in. After 2 years of using rigid lenses his vision remained -5.5, and he did not need to change his glasses to stronger ones, as he usually did before. He visits the ophthalmologist at our children's polyclinic regularly 2 times a year. Unfortunately, even with these lenses he had to have laser surgery again due to retinal detachment (diagnosis: Peripheral Vitreochorioretinal Dystrophy with Fracture).
From our experience:
My son really liked it. The effect is very stable. With regular (nightly) use, really sleep 8 hours in the lenses enough to see without glasses until the evening. The visual acuity is greater in the morning, by the evening it drops a little.
Another plus my son has noticed. When wearing glasses he tends to turn his head to the side more often and twist his neck and feel pain and tension in his eye muscles. And without glasses, you move your eyeballs more often and that causes the eye muscles to work more. He noticed this when he started wearing glasses again for one week during a cold.
But these lenses require discipline:
1. Not skipping and putting them on every night before going to bed.
2. Carefully take care of the lenses and the lens container to store them. I helped my son to do this. After sleeping, I washed the lenses daily with a special solution. Then I poured the solution into a container to keep them in for the evening.
Once a week, I thoroughly washed the lens container and the lenses with a stronger special protein remover.
3. Keep hands clean when putting on and taking off the lenses.
4. also require the use of special moisturising eye drops for putting on and taking off the lenses. My son needed a lot of these as he often felt dry in his eyes even at night or during the day.
Keep in mind that your daughter must learn to put them on herself.
The first week was very difficult. I tried to help, but it only got worse. Until the son has learned by himself. I only helped with lens care.
In 2 years we have never had any complications. No viral or bacterial infection of the eyes. The cornea itself takes its normal shape after you stop wearing the lenses regularly.
These lenses are cheaper in our country, about $500 for a year. This amount includes the lenses themselves (they are shipped from Moscow), lens fitting by the doctor, and regular check-ups by the doctor throughout the year. But on top of that you need to buy your own lens solutions (for storage and cleaning) and eye drops every month. We used to have about 1 large bottle of solution per month, but the eye drops needed 2-3 small bottles per month.
Last year my son lost 2 lenses at night, we couldn't find them. Then our financial situation worsened (job loss) and we could not afford to buy a new set of lenses and regular spending on solutions and drops. My son has been wearing glasses again for 7 months now. One glass has already been broken while playing basketball in PE class. In September he will go to the ophthalmologist and have his eyesight checked. We'll see what the results are and maybe we'll buy lenses again. He likes them.
I wouldn't be able to use them. I don't like lenses and putting something in my eyes every night. But I'm not as nearsighted (-2.5) and I often go without glasses at home.
In general, we have a positive experience of using hard lenses.
