Cornea Remolding: Is it legit?

Perceptron

I heard that there was these special contact lenses that one can put on their eyes over night for some period of time, and in the morning they wake up to have perfect vision. Is it legit? If it is, is there any side effects?

Borek

Never heard about it. Sounds snakeoilish to me.

Ryan_m_b

After some searching I came across rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses which have been used to remold the cornea to treat various specific conditions:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21993461
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?...e+contact+lens

This is a far cry though from overnight perfect vision.

turbo

You can search on "corneal reshaping", though be advised that most of the top-ranking articles you'll find were written by one guy -Jeffery Walline.

Perceptron

It also slows down the progression of myopia for young children according to this study:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22969068

Ryan_m_b

Given that your opening post was:
I'm not going to comit and agree it is legit. The idea that there are contact lenses that grant perfect vision isn't legitimate as far as I can tell. The use of contact lenses in various treatments in certain circumstances is legitimate but let's not conflate the two
If you flick through the list of papers there are various disagreements. Indeed the paper you are linking has a Cochrane review that shows that there is a lack of quality studies regarding therapeutic use of rigid contact lenses over other treatments (admittedly it came out shortly before this study). It doesn't see like there is a strong concensus on the issue with different studies reaching different conclusions. This isn't uncommon for treatments that have yet to be fully explored.

Integral

I have a condition called keratoconus. I had a cornea transplant something over 10yrs ago to correct the worst eye. I now must were RGP lens to correct my vision and also help my misshapen corneas from progressing further.

They do not really reshape the cornea as much a just hold its shape. No miracles here.

etudiant

These lenses are routinely sold and can provide short term benefit, reshaping the eye enough to pass a driver test for instance w/o needing glasses. They are not cheap, because the lenses have to be customized for the individual buyer, so their use is not widespread.

Ryan_m_b

Please provide sources for this. Thanks.

f95toli

RGP are unfortunately not very good even at holding the shape. I also have keratoconus and when I finally had to have surgery on one eye a couple of years ago the specialist told me that the idea that contact lenses can slow down the progression (whcih is what I was also told) has been discredited. For most people RPGs don't help.