ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MIRetainers... for your eyes?

(02/13/12) - You have heard of retainers to straighten your teeth, but what about retainers for your eyes? Yep, you may be able to correct your vision overnight, without surgery. Abdella EyeCare, in Flint Township, is one of only two centers in Mid-Michigan using orthokeratology- they call it Gentle Molding.

It is the same concept behind that head gear or retainers some of us had to wear at night to help straighten our teeth. Except, this has a little more "magic". You wear these "eye retainers" at night, and in the morning you can see without glasses or contacts. In fact, you can see for the rest of the day, or possibly even longer.

There is nothing unusual about a kid putting in contact lenses. It is part of the daily routine for 11-year-old twins Jacob and Madison Pitcher.

"As long as I can see, I'm happy," Madison tells me.  

But instead of putting contacts in when they wake up in the morning, the Pitchers put them in before they hit the sack at night.

"You wake up in the morning and you take this little plunger thing and you pop 'em out and you can see,"  Jacob explains.

That "plunger" is actually a tiny contraption that has suction because the lenses fit a little differently from regular contacts.

Michael Burley, who has used Gentle Shaping lenses for almost four years, says that while the "plunger" concept may sound painful,  it is not. "It's actually a lot easier than taking out my old contacts."

Gentle Molding lenses actually look just like regular contact lenses, but Dr. John Abdella says these lenses do exactly what their name implies- reshape the cornea. "Optimally, what we want is a shift, a flattening of the cornea."

That flattening is apparent on eye topography images as color. After gentle shaping a red ring centered in the cornea represents the tissue that has been displaced, correcting vision.

The lenses may take some initial tweaking to get the perfect fit, then literally, overnight, patients can see. Michael says, "I really didn't know if it was going to work. But, I thought it was worth a shot. After the first day, I pretty much could see fairly well."

Okay, so you may be wondering, as I was, how on earth do you sleep with something in your eye- especially something in your eye that is re-shaping your cornea?

Very well, says Madison, "I can't feel 'em once I go to bed."

Michael agrees. "The first night you do it, you know they're there, but it's really not that uncomfortable. You fall asleep 5 or 10 minutes later and then when you wake up, they pop right out."

The Gentle Molding Lenses are not a permanent fix,  but some patients say their results last longer than a day. Dr. Abdella says he has seen patients who can go as much as a week without using the lenses at night.

Michael has had success. "If you miss a day, you are not going to notice the effects. If you miss three or four, you might notice, but one or two, you're not."

Not everyone is a candidate. The more complex the vision issue, the more complex the lens fitting. The lenses will work for people of all ages, and have been shown to slow vision loss. Dr. Abdella says, "the three patients that you've seen today, they have not had changes in their prescriptions at ages when we would expect their prescriptions to be getting worse."

For kids, the contacts are easy to use and as much a part of daily routine as brushing teeth. The overnight lenses also stay at home, which means they are less likely to be lost or broken. Jacob says, "when I wear glasses, if I play outside they might get bent, or something, then in the snow, when I wore 'em, I got all the water and snow in my glasses."

His sister, Madison, agrees. "I like these 'cause you can see during the day and you don't have to worry about your glasses getting broke or anything."

Gentle molding works best for mild to moderate near or farsightedness or astigmatism, but may be helpful to other patients on a limited basis. The up front cost of the Gentle Molding lenses is comparable to the cost of braces for your teeth. But some of that cost is made up because you are not getting new prescriptions for glasses or contacts every year.

For more information, visit http://abdellaeyecare.com/, or call 810-732-0202.