Corrective contact lenses worn only while sleeping are a new non-surgical way of treating short-sightedness which is when distant objects appear blurred. And for Noel Gallagher - just about to commence a new UK tour with his band the High Flying Birds to promote their latest album, ‘Chasing Yesterday' - they could be the ideal solution to give him perfect daytime vision without needing laser treatment. In an interview with The Sun, Noel admitted his eyesight is deteriorating but has vowed not to do anything about it until he can't recognise his own wife. At that point, rather than resort to glasses Noel has said he would be ready to have laser eye surgery.
According to the interview, he said: "I do need glasses. But I'm going to wait until I walk into a restaurant and accidentally kiss other women while my wife is at another table before I do anything about it. Then I'm going to get them lasered." But as recent negative publicity has highlighted, laser eye surgery sometimes goes wrong and when it does the results can be devastating for the patient who paid a lot of money to enjoy perfect natural vision. This is where the new corrective contact lenses - which are custom-designed based on the long-established optical science of orthokeratology - offer a different treatment approach which delivers the same great result - but without the surgery!
Orthokeratology - or ortho-k for short - involves wearing small bespoke lenses at night which gently flatten the surface of the eyes during sleep using only the mild pressure of closed eyelids. This tiny degree of flattening ensures that after the lenses are removed each morning, light entering the eyes focuses directly on the retina rather than in front of it. This means that distant objects can be seen in clear focus and the effect lasts for over 24 hours so wearers of corrective contact lenses enjoy perfect natural vision all day long until they reinsert the lenses at night before going to bed.