So, you’ve had it with having bad eyesight and you’ve had it with glasses… but you don’t want to get surgery. You really want to be able to see clearly without glasses or contact lenses, but you can’t stomach the thought of a surgeon holding a blade anywhere near your eye or potentially causing damage with a laser. That’s completely understandable, and it’s why CRT contact lenses were invented. CRT stands for Corneal Refractive Therapy, and it basically means that your cornea is being reshaped when you wear them. For you see, these are no ordinary contact lenses, and they don’t do what regular contacts do.
What Is Corneal Refractive Therapy (CRT)?
CRT is a method of improving eyesight without surgery or glasses. To put it briefly, you put some CRT contact lenses in before you go to bed, and they reshape your corneas while you sleep. When you wake up, you remove them and go about your day with clear eyesight. Corneal Refractive Therapy is also called orthokeratology.
Who Is a Good Candidate?
It depends on a lot of factors, but most people with mild to moderate nearsightedness or astigmatism are actually good candidates as long as they don’t have a pre-existing condition like glaucoma. All you have to do is go to an optometrist, who can take the measurements and give you a prescription. Once that’s done, they’ll order your CRT contact lenses for you. Your optometrist can also walk you through the steps of taking care of the lenses, inserting them, and removing them. More on that below.
How Do You Use CRT Contact Lenses?
First, you’ll start by washing your hands (with soap) and drying them. Next, you’ll rinse off the lenses with saline solution. This is very important because the liquid you use to clean them during the day should not get into your eyes. Place the lens in the palm of your hand and apply some eye drops to it before you insert it into your eye. Once you’ve inserted the lens into your eye, blink until the lens is correctly positioned on your cornea. Repeat this for the other lens. Lastly, go to bed and get some sleep.
How Do You Take Care of Your CRT Contact Lenses?
The most important things involved with taking care of your CRT contact lenses are cleaning and storage. The first step in the cleaning process when you wake up is to wash your hands thoroughly with antibacterial soap and then dry them well with a lint-free towel to ensure that there is nothing left on your hands. Next, you’ll remove the lenses from your eyes and rinse them off with saline solution. After that, you’ll place them into their cleaning/storage container and fill it with the cleaning liquid recommended by your optometrist (the one that shouldn’t get into your eyes). Last, you’ll seal the cleaning/storage container and leave it until you come back in the evening to begin your nighttime routine.
Storage
If you decide to stop using your CRT contact lenses for a while, you need to ensure that you clean and store them properly so that they don’t succumb to any form of damage or degradation. You can do this by completing all the steps we just outlined but then placing them into the cleaning/storage container with the cleaning liquid. Doing this will help them last longer in storage than they might if you left them dry for an extended period.
Potential Risks and Side Effects of CRT Contact Lenses
One of the main things attracting people to orthokeratology is the fact that it is relatively low-risk compared to other treatments or procedures. The risks that do exist are mostly related either to an incorrect fit (in which case, you’ll need to see your optometrist to get an updated prescription) or mishandling the lenses. In the first case, your optometrist handles the problem for you. But the second case results from something you’re doing, so we’ll say a bit about that.
Follow The Instructions Carefully and Consistently
One of the potential risks of using CRT contact lenses is getting an eye infection. However, the lenses themselves do not cause this. Instead, eye infections can occur when you fail to properly clean your hands before handling the lenses, leading to something from your hands ending up in your eye via contact with the lens. They can also occur if you fail to properly clean the lenses while you are not wearing them according to the instructions provided by your optometrist. Fortunately, eye infections are easily avoided by simply following proper hygiene protocols consistently.
*Note: Regarding risks and other questions, always consult with your optometrist because, unlike anyone online, they can actually examine your eyes to find out anything that might be wrong.
Can I Quit If I Don’t Like Them?
The short answer is “yes.” The longer answer is “yes, but be sure to clean, dry, and store them properly for when you decide that you want to start using them again. After all, even if you don’t ever use them again, it still makes sense to take care of them and store them in case you do. They’re not the most expensive things in the world, but they do cost money. So, why damage or throw them away if you don’t have to?
As for side effects or any negative physical effects of quitting, there are few if any unless you’ve contracted a bacterial infection from not washing your hands or something like that. But then, that isn’t the fault of the CRT contact lenses themselves. Physically, if you stop using your lenses, your corneas will return to the shape they would have otherwise had without the lenses, and your vision will go back to what it normally would be without them. It will probably take a couple of days, but your eyes will revert to their natural state, and you can go back to wearing glasses or standard contact lenses.
