By Jacqui Mayhew 

Ortho-k optician , Kieran Minshull of L K Leon in London's West End, has helped Adam Burgess, the GB Olympic canoeing prospect to see clearly through the spray of a white water descent and aid his chances of achieving his dream of Olympic team selection. Adam is short-sighted but obviously cannot wear glasses to paddle in and he has never been confident about wearing daytime contact lenses since they always seemed to move in his eyes as he battled through the constant flow of water spray. Then he found out about overnight vision correction which is a new treatment for short-sightedness and involves wearing small custom-designed contact lenses but only at night while sleeping.

After the lenses are removed each morning, the wearer enjoys perfect natural vision which lasts all day long until the lenses are reinserted at night. Having found out about overnight lenses on the internet, Adam went for a consultation at L K Leon where Kieran Minshull explained that due to technology advances over the past 10 years, ortho-k opticians  were now able to offer a treatment based on a branch of established optical science which has been known about for more than 50 years. Only once new contact lens materials, computer diagnostics and lens manufacturing methods became available had it become possible to offer the treatment commercially.

The overnight lenses work by gently flattening the surface of the eye during sleep to correct the diagnosed level of short-sightedness and the correction lasts for over 24 hours providing the equivalent benefit of laser surgery but without the surgery. Adam says: "My sight is perfect all day long. It's made such a difference in the boat because I can see all the time so I'm really looking forward to how these lenses are going to help me in the 2012 Olympic season." After Adam's success at Junior level in World Championship events, he is hoping 2012 will be his breakthrough year as a Senior competitor and his visit to an ortho-k optician  could prove to be the first step towards successfully realising his Olympics dream.

Check if you are suitable for ortho-k corrective contact lenses .