The Katie Yeo show

Clinical seminars are usually pretty sedate affairs where practitioners earnestly take notes and refresh their clinical knowledge.

However, 'Ortho K in practice', hosted by No 7 Contact Lens Laboratory, was completely different in that the basis for the event was to encourage practitioners to take up a new vision correction option to offer to their patients. About 90 practices have signed up to offer Ortho K in the UK so far and interest in the mainstream media has created a real buzz around this proprietary version of accelerated orthokeratology.

Improvements in technology have enabled the accuracy, cost and usability of topographers, communications and manufacturing to come on in leaps and bounds. This in turn has led to the ability of systems such as the Dreamlite technology used by No 7 to create empirical fitting of orthokeratology lenses, branded as Ortho K.

Essentially, this involves measuring the eye to capture the topographical information necessary to make a corrective reverse geometry lens. That information is emailed to No 7 where the lens is manufactured on a computer-controlled lathe. The lens is returned to the practice within four days and, all being well, is a 'first time fit' for the patient.