The cornea is a lens, and if the shape of that lens is altered, the vision can improve.

“What we do,” the doctor said, “is flatten the cornea. By doing that, more light can be directed to the back of the eye, which is what laser surgery also does. It removes tissue from the cornea and makes it more flat. We accomplish the same without surgery. It’s a very safe therapy.”

He adds that if sleeping with Ortho-K lenses is suspended, the eyes return to their original state.

If a person’s eyes change six years later, for instance, in most cases they would need another surgery or have to wear glasses again. “With my system,” he said, “vision can also change a little, but my patients receive a spare pair of Ortho-K lenses every year to correct that variation.”

Getting the lenses

Dr. Roth takes a picture of the cornea, which measures 10,000 points, and makes a map of it. That map goes to another program in his computer where the lens is designed with exact specifications. This report is sent from his computer to a machine in Texas that cuts the lenses. It is a very specific design, because each person is different.

“Many patients feel that the procedure is magical. They can’t believe they are seeing without glasses after maybe 20 or 30 years,” he said.

The Ortho-K lenses cost from $1,900 to $4,000, depending on the difficulty of the prescription, as in cases of astigmatism or a need for bifocals. Not everyone can be a candidate for this type of cornea-molding therapy, but if they qualify they can obtain very good results.

“Other patients prefer laser surgery because they don’t want the inconvenience of having to sleep with Ortho-K lenses,” Roth said. “These lenses used to be made by hand, and it took two or three weeks to have them ready. Now they can be ready in three days because they are done by computer.”

“Many of my adult patients, with thick glasses, tell me they wished they had known about this option when they were children.”