New Contact Lens can Fix Nearsightedness

Scientists claim to have developed new contact lenses that can restore age-related loss of near vision when worn by the user every night.

Most people have age-related decline in near vision (presbyopia) requiring bifocals or reading glasses. The emerging technique called hyperopic orthokeratology (OK) may provide a new alternative for restoring near vision without the need for glasses, according to a study.

For middle-aged patients with presbyopia, wearing OK contact lenses overnight can restore up-close vision in one eye, according to the study by Paul Gifford and Helen A Swarbrick from the University of New South Wales, Sydney. The study included 16 middle-aged patients (aged between 43 to 59 years) with presbyopia.

Hyperopic orthokeratology is a clinical technique to correct vision using specially designed rigid contact lenses to manipulate the shape of the cornea.

Gifford and Swarbick evaluated a “monocular” technique, with patients wearing a custom-made OK lens in one eye overnight for one week. To preserve normal distance vision, the other eye was left untreated.

In all patients, the monocular OK technique was successful in restoring near vision in the treated eye. The improvement was apparent on the first day after overnight OK lens wear, and increased further during the treatment week. All patients retained normal distance vision in the untreated eye.

To retain the correction in near vision, patients had to continue wearing their OK lenses every night.

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