Too Young for LASIK? Children can use a Contact Lens Alternative.
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (PRWEB) February 15, 2018 -- Glasses and contact lenses can imped a person’s ability to enjoy many activities, especially for children. Running, swimming, and playing sports can be difficult if wearing glasses or contacts, and while LASIK (laser in-situ keratomileusis) is often a perfect solution to these issues, children can not have the procedure until they are older than 18 years of age.
“In order to qualify for LASIK, we want our patients to be at least 18 and have had a stable prescription for one year, so children spend their childhood hampered with glasses or contact lenses. But this doesn’t have to be the case,” said Marc S. Werner, M.D., one of the experienced ophthalmologists at Stahl Eyecare Experts on Long Island and in New York City. “Parents complain that their child loses or breaks their glasses, or is uncomfortable in their contacts, and believe there is no other option available. There is – it’s CRT (Ortho-K) Orthokeratology. Your child can wear a specially designed therapeutic lens at night while sleeping to reduce astigmatism or nearsightedness by reshaping the corneal surface.”
CRT is a non-surgical method of vision correction that allows patients to experience clear vision without the use of glasses or contact lenses throughout the day. After wearing the therapeutic lens at night, they remove the lens in the morning and experience clear, natural vision for the full day. “Orthokeratology has also been shown to slow the progression of myopia in children, meaning their prescription doesn’t change as quickly,” added Werner. “At our office, we use Paragon’s FDA approved specially designed oxygen permeable contact lenses to reshape the eye. Improvement in vision is seen within the first few days of initiating treatment and patients achieve optimal vision within 10 to 14 days.”
CRT lenses are similar in size to a soft contact lens and are not any more difficult to insert or remove. Since these lenses are worn while sleeping, they eliminate any discomfort one may experience with contact lenses worn during the day. CRT is also completely reversible, so when the child is old enough they can easily have LASIK surgery to permanently correct their vision.
The doctors at Stahl are truly experts in the fields of ophthalmology and LASIK — they have performed more than 50,000 procedures throughout Long Island and in the five boroughs of New York City, and Stahl Eyecare Experts has been on the cutting edge of ophthalmology for more than 50 years. For more information on CRT and LASIK surgery for children, visit http://www.stahlny.com.
Thomas Bartolomeo, Stahl Eyecare Experts, http://www.stahlny.com, +1 (516) 832-8000 Ext: 110, [email protected]
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