By Ann Gould

Fox 5 News discussed the benefits of ortho k lenses with optician Dr. Jeruss who uses ortho k lenses on his patients to improve their eyesight while they sleep.

Ortho k lenses are a non-surgical way to reduce or eliminate myopia (shortsight). It sounds unbelievable but ortho k lenses are the new non-surgical way to improve eyesight without glasses, regular contact lenses and laser vision surgery.

The most exciting thing happening in eyecare today is Orthokeratology (Ortho-K), which is a way of gently flattening the cornea using specially designed 'reverse geometry"  contact lenses to reduce or eliminate myopia (nearsight) and astigmatism.

The science has been around for over 46 years, and has slowing been gaining recognition as a safer and less expensive alternative to laser vision correction.

It goes by a number of different names, among them Orthokeratology (Ortho-K), Corneal Refractive Therapy (CRT), and the newest Overnight Vision Correction(OVC).

All of the corneal re-shaping techniques use custom designed and patented semi-rigid contact lenses that are worn while sleeping to flatten the central cornea - the area directly over the pupil.

Upon removing the lenses, the re-shaped cornea can then focus objects onto the retina, instead of in front of it, resulting in corrected vision.The effect usually lasts 1-3 days.

Overnight Vision Correction is safe and completely reversible.

A special peice of equipment called a corneal topographer captures 14000 measurements of the eye's surface. This information is then exported by computer to a highly sophisticated diamond laithe which produces each lens specifically for each eye.

The front surface of an eye differs from person to person a bit like a finger print. The lenses have to be made very acuratley to fit each individual person and each individual eye. The corneal falttening produced by the lens is less than a micron - or a hairs width, so the adjustments have to be extremely accurate to accurately correct vision.

This use of computer technology and the accuracy of which the lenses can be made is what distinguishes todays ortho k lenses making them far superior than the ones that went before.

Are you suitable for ortho k overnight vision correction lenses. Find out by filling in the online suitability questionnaire