Kids, Sports and Corneal
Reshaping
BY LEDONNA BUCKNER, FCLSA, Richmond, Va.
Children
don't always do well with eyeglasses or contact lenses, especially when they
ear spectacles under a football or
hockey helmet. And baseball, cycling and swimming aren't always conducive to
contact lens wear. What's more, children younger than 18 years aren't candidates
for refractive surgery, so the best vision correction option for active children
with up to -6.00D of myopia and less than 1.75D of astigmatism may be corneal
reshaping.
Corneal reshaping uses very high-Dk contact
lenses to gently reshape patients' corneas as they sleep. Paragon's Corneal
Refractive Therapy (CRT), the only corneal reshaping system currently approved
for overnight wear by the FDA, uses a series of 100 diagnostic reverse-geometry
contact lenses to flatten the central cornea. When a patient removes his lenses
in the morning, the cornea retains its flat profile, focusing previously
out-of-focus light rays on the retina.
Corneal reshaping is ideal for active patients
between 8 and 20 years old who need "corrective-free" vision. Patients
adapt to corneal reshaping quickly and maintain good vision during their waking
hours. In addition, corneal reshaping is noninvasive, convenient (patients wear
lenses for only 6 to 8 hours) and, unlike refractive surgery, is completely
reversible.
The next time a young shortstop shows up with
broken eyeglasses, consider talking to his parents about corneal reshaping
therapy.
Contact Lens Spectrum, Issue: May 2004