Dear renaudt,
I started orthoK back in 2000, an optometrist marketed as "a way of arresting progression of myopia by age 18". It was good to start with, until 2 yrs ago, when I would wake up in the morning and the lenses would be stuck off-center to my eyes, especially the right eye (more often). I tried to be as careful as I could taking them off with suction cup (which is how I've always taken them off). Sometimes my eyes would be mildly dry, and I could take them off easily after rewetting my eyes. But these "seal off" incidences made it difficult to remove. I would get double vision for that day. Next night, might get better and be on-center. I thought it was going to be fine. This happened with random frequency, but the off-centering in the morning increased in frequency in the past 2 yrs. (I didn't even wear them for more than 6 hrs a night.) I told this optometrist twice about my off-center / dry eye problems, who was not worried at all and dismissed them as "normal." I complained of increased astigmatism, and he continues to call them "normal". I had already forgotten that I did not have astigmatism before treatment. The optometrist simply told me to use some eye drops, but he never advised me stop. Not even a hint.

This summer I was finally formally diagnosed with dry eyes by an ophthamologist, and was formally treated with Restasis and Lotemax. Apparently, for all this time, my condition was such that I should have never been wearing orthoKs. I stopped wearing my orthoKs in June. I thought that was it. I switched to glasses. It was all fine until 2 months ago, I noticed I had persistent double vision, more noticeable in my right eye than left, even with glasses on. Very noticeable in dim light to no light conditions. In the past month, I noticed that I now even see a hint of ghost images (with glasses on) in well-lit rooms. The ghost image is even clearer, opaque, and more divergent than it was a month ago, I'm pretty sure of it...

I am also becoming very worried that this is progressive. I also would like solutions to this problem. Multiple visits to eye docs show that my problem is purely corneal -- topography shows a terrible bowtie pattern, spread over the cornea, which accounts for my severe double vision (both eyes, more severe in right). Without my glasses, it's a visual nightmare, esp. in darker rooms. It is bothersome reading light text on dark backgrounds (or anything like that for that matter). The original optometrist "lost" my original topography from 2000, and continues to say "well, FDA said it was reversible."

I am also very worried this will affect my night vision and driving in the future.

I am extremely upset at his irresponsibility with his orthoK practice. I am also going online and stuff to look for people that might have similar problems. You are one of the rare few that I've found, so I thought I might make myself known, too. I started when I was in middle school--talk about patient autonomy exploitation--and if it were something I was introduced to now, I would go online and do tons of research before agreeing. And from what I read, I would never have started such a treatment. I used to have a little myopia. Now I have high myopia regular astigmatism irregular astigmatism. It has been 4 months, and my monocular diplopia has only gotten worse. (Lesson: Cornea re-shaping...if it ain't broke, don't fix it!!!!)

Please let me know if eye docs up there have any solutions. I'll try to keep posted here, too.

Thank you. I hope there will be some kind of resolution for both of us.

Hi en_trance002, so finally I am not crazy and this has happened to other people too? I was told by my optometrist I had large pupils which might have contributed to the correction being messed up. Anyway, I feel I have to carry part of the blame for this, my vision was perfectly normal with contacts and glasses before ortho-k.
Anyway this thing is a whole mess. Doctors won't operate me for floaters because I have the type of floaters that can't be seen with pupil dilation so they won't operate on a problem they can't see. Personally, I can't say my life was much better before ortho-k, but hey, I guess you always expect great things to happen. I'd wish life was little more a beach. When I get more $ I might go to lasik dudes and ask them if they can make ghosting, starbursts and double vision disappear. I'm very sorry this happened to you, wish you the best,
Renaud

Seems like a lot of negativity here. My friend swears by his "retainers." He said he wouldn't let anyone do surgery because he would permanently loose his near vision since he's 45. I would try it I needed glasses but thank goodness I don't. My PCP said he thought people that did LASIK were taking the chance of throwing away a perfectly healthy eye.

Lets see. Surgery or no surgery...hmmmm. Are you kidding me! Online there are hundreds (thousands?) of websites with people complaining about Lasik surgery. I even found one where the FDA was investigating Lasik in 2008. The real investigation should be in determining why the general public doesn't know more about Ortho-k.

Forty yrs of Ortho-k and the only complaints I find online are the few above. Twenty yrs of eye surgery and you find thousands of complaints online. Do the math.

Patients should be checked yearly. Eyes do change over time, whether they don't use any correction or not. Dry eyes may develop over time and need to be treated. Floaters have nothing to do with retainers or contact lenses. Understanding the way Ortho K works is important to understanding why it is reversible and safe. There are many people who will develop vision and eye problems throughout there lives regardless of their use of glasses, contacts, ortho K, refractive surgery, or no correction at all.

One fact that is not addressed in the original question is how long the person has been without the molds. It takes time for the eye to return to its original position. Candidates for LASIK will be consulted to remove their rigid lenses for sometimes upwards of a year to be sure that they eye has returned to its original shape. Starbursts and halos are not uncommon when the eye is unmolding.

Has anyone ever investigated the possibility that the pressure applied to the eyes by the reshaping lenses could cause debris to detach from the eye and result in floaters? I'm no specialist, but again, i'm just saying...

Like en_trance002, though I haven't been wearing the ortho-k lenses for now more than 2 and a half year, the double vision, ghosting, starbursts and halos remain, even though myopia/astigmatism returns to original shape. They did corneal topography to me too but didn't talk to me about a possible bad pattern/deformation.

I've been told double vision/ghosting/starbursts/halos MIGHT be fixed with laser surgery, though it's quite an investment.

As for the floaters which I think result from orthok pressure to the eye, I've been told they can't be fixed, even with special laser treatment/vitrectomy, because they are small debris close to the retina so they're not visible to the practioner when doing pupil dilation.

Looking at it, I paid less than 1000 $ for this thing. I guess I've got the service I paid for. Friends i know did laser eye surgery and paid 3000$ and are satisfied with the results. And when I first experienced problems with ortho-k, I didn't immediately report them to my practitioner, even though he told me that "if anything was wrong just me a call".

Anyway, in the study done by Paragon CRT, 21% of the subjects stopped wearing the lenses because of unacceptable vision. But it probably works fine for some people. It did work fine for me at the beginning (that's why I started the treatment after the trial), but at some point I started seing double and starbursts and probably should've stopped wearing the lenses immediately when a problem occurs (as advised) and contact the practitioner. And instead of stopping treatment I went back again to get other similar lenses (I pushed it and lacked reason somehow).

But I guess for people like me who like the practioner to handle the process in its entirety, Laser eye surgery might be more suitable, since for ortho-k you have to repeat the wear and all every day. Probably why it costs 5 times more (more popular, practical, less hassle).

Anyway, sometimes a whole situation just lacks reason, and it's just too bad. I guess despite the damage and some craziness, you just have to put yourself together, get to your senses.

"Tryna make some sense of this all, na na na..."