Corrective eye surgery is more common place as the technology behind the procedure improves and the outcomes become more acceptable. However, there are still a number of complications that regularly crop up in the media and eye surgery options are by no means a panacea for short-sightedness. Corrective eye surgery for conditions such as myopia are still not available on the NHS as they are deemed to be cosmetic and laser eye surgery risks are enough to put many off corrective eye surgery. Although the benefits of corrective eye surgery are undisputed, including the possibility of having vision restored without the need to resort to glasses or contact lenses, the side effects of the numerous laser surgery options can be permanent and there are a number of alternatives to eye surgery that all myopia sufferers should consider.
What are the real alternatives to corrective eye surgery?
There are a huge number of vision correction options available in the UK and some are undoubtedly more effective than others. When we talk about 'real' alternatives to laser eye surgery and other eye surgery options, we mean interventions that have some scientific backing as opposed to just anecdotal evidence.
For instance the Bates method, which involves short-sighted individuals adhering to a regular eye exercise routine, has no proven clinical benefits to support its use over other remedies; such as corrective eye surgery. While the technique, which has been around for more than 100 years, has found popular support, it cannot claim to be better than corrective eye surgery, even though it is often touted as an alternatives to laser eye surgery.
Ortho K overnight corrective contact lenses, on the other hand, do have a number of proven benefits over corrective eye surgery, making them a viable alternative to laser eye surgery options. They have also been shown to help stop the progression of short-sightedness in children, another thing that Bates method practitioners cannot claim.
The other obvious alternative to corrective eye surgery is to wear standard daily contact lenses or glasses. But using standard myopia correction is not as beneficial as Ortho K contact lenses when it comes to avoiding corrective eye surgery, simply because of the care, maintenance and effort the wearer has to put into making sure they still function properly.
What makes Ortho K lenses the best corrective eye surgery alternative?
As a cure for myopia, Ortho K stand out from the crowd as an alternatives to laser eye surgery for a number of reasons. Firstly, unlike glasses and contact lenses, Ortho K overnight contact lenses offer vision correction without the need for steady increase in prescription strength, meaning one set of contact lenses can last for life.
Moreover, one of the major selling points of corrective eye surgery is that it does away with the need to wear glasses and contact lenses during the day. But this is also something that Ortho K contact lenses can boast, making them a great corrective eye surgery alternative. On top of that they have none of the permanent side effects associated with corrective eye surgery, such as haloing, blurring and potentially permanent vision damage.
Using Ortho K as an alternative to corrective eye surgery
Worn overnight, Ortho K corrective contact lenses are easier to build into your daily routine; they offer a one-off solution to myopia that has none of the permanent side effects of corrective eye surgery and they mitigate a number of the long-termaser eye surgery risks by offering completely reversible vision correction. Many patients who undergo corrective laser surgery still have to wear glasses when undertaking certain tasks - such as driving at night - and over time the benefits of laser surgery options are eroded by the aging process. Both of these are problems that Ortho K users will not come across.
