25 July: Ortho-K Follow-up

In the shop I work at, we don't prescribe Ortho-K.  Nor do we have its trial lenses set.  However my boss had gone to a few ortho-K courses previously.  When we received a phone call from a customer, who was referred from another optical shop in Melaka, my boss and I were a bit worried, wondering what the case is.  As we had suspected, it was a case of Ortho-K.  but luckily, not a fitting session, only a follow-up.  The customer had worn the current ortho-K for 3 months, and we wanted to know how effective the ortho-K is for him, and if the lenses cause any adverse effect in his eyes.

Firstly... what is Ortho-K?  It is a non-surgical procedure with the purpose of reducing the refractive errors of nearsightedness (myopia), farsightedness (hyperopia) and astigmatism.  How does it work?  The cornea is flattened by a hard contact lens (as shown below).  The hard lenses are worn for a few hours, commonly at night. These lenses flatten the cornea, and thus reducing the refractive power of the cornea.

So anyway... we carried out the follow-up.  We checked his visual acuity (how well he can read the Snellen chart), do refraction (check his eye's current refractive error, better known as 'power') and also do a slit lamp evaluation.  The subjective refraction done by retinoscopy shows confusing reflections, which my sifu (a.k.a. my boss) tells me is quite typical in Ortho-K patients as well as post-lasik patients.  There are Fleischer's-like brown ring which could be observed under the slit lamp.  This is not an unusual occurrence, however, as several journals have also reported of the same ring.  There are also some neovascularization on his eyes, but very minor ones.

All in all.... it is the first time I ever observed and attempted to do follow-up on Ortho-K patient (though with a lot of help from my sifu).  I learnt that their refraction with retinoscope tends to be a bit different, and of the brownish-rings which will sometimes appear on the cornea.

Well... I guess, that's all for now... you can find more regarding ortho-K in some of the links I share bellow (which I also did take some info from).

Sources:
http://www.ortho-k.net/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12322926
http://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/orthok.htm

Pictures courtesy of Google search engine.

Welcome, Ahlan wasahlan!

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful...

This blog is a new one.. Not that I am closing the old one, but this one is more focused on sharing what I gained training as an optometrist here in Johor Bahru.

A bit of a rewind....
I am a fresh graduate who had just started working less than a month ago here in an optical shop in a mall in JB.  I had not even officially received my transcript yet.  Yup... Just started working life after four arduous years as an optometry student.

Anyway... back to the present.  Working here, alongside a boss who is also an optometrist (and a good one at that!) had given me the opportunity to observe many cases, some of which I have only heard of before.  Of course, there are some others which I had seen, but also still not so familiar with.

As I found one case after another, I realize that I had to write them down!  Otherwise, I might forget them sooner or later.  Writing them down is also a great way to do some reading and research on whatever stuff that I had discovered as well.  

Now, this blog might be a bit more academic and filled with jargons, but I hope to write them so that non-medical/optom background might also understand them.  But again, this is my first attempt at writing academically via a blog, so if you have any comments, questions, or things to discuss, feel free to do so.

I guess that's all for now.
Do wait for my update... (which will be soon, I hope!)

Till next time...
Assalamualaikum n have a great day!