Kingston boy '˜sleeps off poor vision'

Alex Biddulph is using a novel way of correcting his vision, which takes place while he sleeps.

Short-sighted since the age of seven, the 12-year-old sports enthusiast was needing stronger and stronger glasses until his optometrist decided a new approach was needed, in the form of Orthokeratology.

With parents who are both short-sighted, Alex was on the path to further deteriorating vision, believes his Lewes optometrist Paul McDonald of Wilson Wilson and Hancock.

“Alex had reached -4.00D by the age of 11 and so we decided to try Orthokeratology, or Ortho-k, as a means of correcting his vision and arresting the myopia progression,” said Mr McDonald. “This has been cited in several international studies as the best means of stopping short-sightedness in its tracks and that seems to be the case with Alex.

“His vision has not changed in the year that he has been using Ortho-k.”

The treatment involves the optometrist taking detailed topographical maps of the cornea – an easy and painless procedure. These are emailed to a specialist lab in Hastings where tailor-made lenses are made which gently flatten the eye as Alex sleeps.

Moving the cornea by less than a hair’s width, the lenses are then removed in the morning, providing very good vision all day long.

Alex is delighted as, without this, he believes his vision would have deteriorated further. He said: “It is great that I can now see really well and I am hoping that my sight will now stay the same.

“It is very easy to wear the lenses at night, leaving me free of glasses for football, tennis and all school things – reading and playing double bass and drums in a band.

“I would advise any one to try it – not just to save wearing lenses during the day but also as a means of preserving your sight.”

His father Phil said: “I wish this was available when I was younger. We all know what a bind it is wearing glasses but putting these lenses in at night and taking them out in the morning is a piece of cake – but the most interesting part is that it seems to stop myopia in its tracks.”

To find out more about Orthokeratology, visit the website at www.orthoklenses.com.

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