It's more common than you think.

​Have you ever been to your doctor’s office and been scolded for sleeping in your contact lenses?

Did you know that there are three types of lenses that you can sleep in if you are directed to by your doctor?

First is the typical soft “night and day” lenses, second is a bandage lens for certain corneal injuries, and third is a lens called an Ortho K lens. This last type of lens is the most exciting. It is the newest service provided to you by Jensen Eye Care.

Ortho K lenses are designed to sleep in, and while you are sleeping they reshape your cornea such that when you wake up in the morning you will not need glasses or contacts to see clearly. These lenses are not for everyone, but they will work very well if you are:

  • Near sighted
  • May not want to or cannot do LASIK
  • Do not want to make permanent changes
  • Kids who are becoming nearsighted quickly
  • People who have failed out of other types of contact lenses

People become nearsighted because their corneas are too steep. Ortho K lenses reshape the eye such that the center of the cornea becomes flatter—correcting for nearsightedness. So, you wear them at night to reshape then when you wake up in the morning your vision is corrected and you can see without contacts or glasses.One good thing about this type of vision correction is that all the changes made through this process are reversible unlike any of the surgical options. If you decide you don’t want to wear the lenses anymore you can just stop wearing them and your prescription will return to normal within about a week.

There are a few caveats about wearing Ortho K lenses. They are not for everyone, but if they are something you are interested in, please contact our office at 307.265.7008 to set up a consultation with me, and we will find out if you are a good candidate for this lens.

Dr. Seth

* See our previous blog post “A Culture of Care—Travis’ Story” for a review of Ortho K lenses.