Ortho-k Hard contacts

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navy2016

5-Year Member
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Dec 30, 2009
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Anyone here wear Ortho-k Hard contacts? How are you dealing with that and dodmerb?

My scenario:
I see on the form it says to have them out 90 days prior to the examination. When I called the referred office, they tell me, I had to make an appointment within 60 days. They are now trying to figure out what to do with me after I told them about the 90 day deal.........
 
My son wears that type of contact lens, which works great by the way. We called Concorde this morning. The woman there told us not to worry about the 6 week/90 day conflict. Either schedule now and stay active, or have your package become inactive and then activate it after you schedule farther out.

Then I called the optometrist who will perform the exam. He thinks there is no medical basis for waiting 90 days. The intent is for your cornea to return to its "normal" shape before the exam. He said this will happen within a week or so. (My own optometrist confirmed this. In fact she told my son that he could skip wearing them for a day or two, but no more than that.) I'm not sure if they are also tested with corrective lenses on. (The CRT type lenses don't work that way.) If so, he can get tested with his natural 20/30 vision or we have to buy glasses, which he wouldn't need otherwise.

The first available exam for us isn't until the middle of August, and for different reasons, my son hasn't worn his lenses in a few weeks. So it will be nearly 60 days since he last wore his lenses by the time he is examined. The examiner thinks this will be fine, so we scheduled. If we have to push it out another month, that's what we will do.

It is unfortunate that my son's vision will not be as good as it could be for all that time. My optometrist thinks things will be OK, but he will need additional checkups and possibly a new set of lenses depending upon how long he goes without them.

I would definitely recommend contacting your eye care provider before you go to far.

Hope that helps. We've just started the process and will know something more definitive in August.
 
Quick addendum after checking the literature from my son's contact lenses, which are CRT rather than Ortho-K (although I think these are similar).

"Generally, the more myopia being reduced, the longer it will take for the corneal curvature to return to normal. For instance, if the pretreated correction was a -4.50 D, it would take a few days longer to return to normal than if the pretreated correction was -1.50 D. We expect your corneas will fully return to normal within one to two weeks, with most of the change occurring within the first few post-treatment days. There are no recorded permanent corneal changes post-treatment." (My son's correction is 0.25D.)

The irony is that he doesn't need the lenses to drive. He just wanted a better batting average and to see the catcher's signs from the mound at night. Oh, and to see the board more clearly at school :) CRT lenses are great, because he doesn't have to wear them during games.

But, we are going with whatever DodMERB tells us to do.
 
Last addendum.

Called Colorado Springs. 90 days is 90 days. So you can schedule your exams for three months out, or if they won't let you do that, wait until they will schedule you and re-activate your package. The 90 days governs over completing all of your exams within six weeks.
 
Everything is now set. My have my appointment scheduled in October. At least I got the regular dodmerb exam done already.
 
The prior use of Ortho-K lenses is not disqualifying - I believe once the use of the lenses has been discontinued for the required amount of time (90 days) your vision is not considered to have been "corrected" anymore.
 
AikiBudo said:
The prior use of Ortho-K lenses is not disqualifying - I believe once the use of the lenses has been discontinued for the required amount of time (90 days) your vision is not considered to have been "corrected" anymore.
Click to expand...

Here's what it says:

USCGA Common Disqualifications said:
Eyes and Vision: Uncorrected visual acuity worse than 20/400 in either eye. Vision not correctable to 20/20 in either eye. Refractive error exceeding plus or minus 8.00 diopters (spherical equivalent). Astigmatism exceeding 3.00 diopters and anisometropia exceeding 3.5 diopters. Refractive error corrected by orthokeratology, kerato-refractive, PRK, laser, or any other corneal enhancement.
Click to expand...

Your interpretation may be right, but the website does not confirm that.
 
Ortho-K lenses are hard contact lenses that are designed to temporarily reshape the cornea. Once they have been removed the cornea returns to its original shape and at that point there is no refractive error corrected - hence no disqualification. My understanding is that it would be impossible to tell if someone had ever worn them. Perhaps someone can answer more definitively (where is Larry Mullen when you need him?).
 
That is my understanding. It takes a little while for the eye to return to normal - some say a just week or two but certainly by 60 - 90 days. They even want soft contact wearers to not use their lenses for a period of time so that the examiner is looking at an "unaltered eye". Obviously anything done that is permanent such as eye surgery will merit a DQ. But I'm not an expert in these matters so I would defer to DoDMERB and the SAs.
 
Mr. Mullen was able to provide a direct answer to our situation off-line. He referred our case to the DodMERB eye doctor who approved a specific waiting period for examination.

Thank you Mr. Mullen.
 
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