Ortho-k pals

A pair of 10 year old bespectacled friends have switched their glasses to ortho-k lenses.

Bristol-based Lucy and Eleanor have been fitted with and are sleeping in EyeDream ortho-k lenses, which allows them to be vision correction free during the day. The children are attending Turners Opticians in Fishponds, Bristol.

Close friends at school, when Eleanor arrived one day without her spectacles, Lucy was curious.

“Eleanor came into school without her glasses and I thought that she had forgotten them, but she told me she was using ortho-k,” Lucy shared.

Having worn glasses since she was four and with a prescription of -3.00D, Lucy admitted that she did not like wearing glasses but had to as she couldn’t see the board or even her teacher sometimes at school without them.

Keen to try the vision correcting lenses herself, her parents took her to the opticians.

Lucy explained that wearing ortho-k has given her the confidence to take part in sport. “Seeing well has given me more confidence at Badtri, the Bristol and District Triathlon Club. Before ortho-k, I couldn’t fit my glasses under my cycling helmet and swimming was a problem.”

Optometrist at Turners Opticians, Peter Turner explained: “We know that myopia in the UK children has doubled in the last 59 years and the likelihood of developing more serious eye conditions in later life is significantly higher with even low levels of myopia. If we can arrest the progression of vision loss in young people it has to be good. The other benefit is that this leaves them free of glasses and contact lenses all day.”