Ortho-K
Ortho-k is a specialty contact lens technique that allows people with short sight the freedom to see clearly without daytime vision correction.
What’s it all about?
Special contact lenses are worn overnight only. These gently re-mold the cornea (the clear curved surface on the front of the eye) so that a person with short sight can see clearly even when the lenses are removed.
Ortho-k has been around for several decades. From fairly experimental beginnings, it’s undergone many refinements, particularly in the last 15 years. Now ortho-k practitioners can offer most patients a fast result, with minimal fitting time.
What’s the result?
Typically after just 1 night of wear, ortho-k lenses will give patients significant vision improvement.
Occasionally, 1 night is all our patients need for perfect results. More often though, 1 night gives substantial improvement, which then increases to perfect vision after just a few nights.
Typically this might take just another few days for the result to last all waking hours. If the amount of initial short sight is in the higher ranges, this can take a few weeks.
Some patients will only need to wear their lenses every 2nd or 3rd night, although most continue to wear them every night to maintain their perfect daytime sight.
Will it work for me?
We run a trial program to determine whether your eyes are suitable for ortho-k.
As part of this, we measure:
· your vision with no glasses
· your refraction (in other words, which spectacle lenses you’d usually need to achieve your best eyesight)
· the shape profile of your eyes.
These measurements give us a preliminary idea as to whether your eyes may be suitable for ortho-k. If they are, we can book you in for a trial time to suit your schedule.
What’s involved in a trial?
Firstly, we select the lenses that should work well for you. We examine them on your eyes to determine whether they fit well, and make adjustments as necessary, by using other trial lenses to fine-tune the fitting.
Assuming that the correctly-fitting lenses are available, we then show you how to insert, remove and store the lenses.
The next morning, after you’ve worn your trial lenses overnight, we assess how well your eyes have responded, and design the remainder of the trial phase from that point. If there’s further room for improvement, we either ask you to wear them for a few more nights to achieve this, or we may need to use different lenses.
What happens if the trial works well?
When we reach the point where it’s clear that your results are excellent and will last all day, you have the choice of going ahead with your own ortho-k lenses. In the longer term, this means that you can continue to enjoy clear all-day vision.
What happens if the trial is not successful?
We charge a $500 non-refundable deposit for ortho-k fitting. This covers our professional costs and/or any special-order lenses we may have to order in. If it becomes clear that ortho-k is not working for you, or if for any reason you decide not to proceed, there is no further charge for the trial.
What are the costs otherwise?
If your trial is successful and you elect to proceed with ortho-k, the total fee is $1000. This consists of $500 in professional fees and $500 in lens costs. We recommend that you replace the lenses every 2 years, which would again be $500 each time. Private health funds typically contribute $50 - $150 towards the lens costs.
After a successful trial, we recommend 6-monthly aftercare visits. These are billed at just under $40, and you’ll receive an 85% refund through Medicare. We process Medicare refunds directly at reception, saving you a trip to the Medicare office.
Prior to your trial, if you’re not already one of our patients, we would assess your vision and the health of your eyes thoroughly. These initial consultations are just under $100, including photographing your retinas (the back of the eye), and you’ll receive around $60 back from Medicare.
Are there other benefits?
Ortho-k has been shown in studies conducted by UNSW to slow the development of short sight. For the under-25s whose vision is progressively worsening, we strongly recommend ortho-k to give them the best chance of minimizing long-term vision problems.
Does this mean you can guarantee my sight won’t get worse?
No. Ortho-k is all about clear daytime vision, with the added bonus of the potential for slowing or stopping any increase in short sight.
What do I do now?
If you’d like to book a trial for ortho-k,
- give us a call on 3368 3644, or
- email us on
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