Ortho K is increasingly being used in Asia as a way of slowing the progression of myopia in children, according to feedback gathered from practitioners using the system.
Practitioners from around the world who offer Ortho K met in Holland recently to exchange information on how the night-time, reverse geometry RGP lenses were fitted in their countries and the kinds of people taking up the system.
The most striking trend was the rapid use of Ortho K on children in the Far East. In Hong Kong 90 per cent of users are children and in Taiwan children make up 80 per cent and young adults 19 per cent.
In Switzerland young adults account for 80 per cent of users and the same group make up three quarters of users in the US. In Holland there is a more balanced picture 45 per cent of users are young adults and the same proportion are mature adults. This older group dominates wear in Sweden at 86 per cent.
In the UK the main driver for take-up of Ortho K has been to provide freedom for sport and leisure activities. Children make up just 10 per cent of UK wearers, young adults 30 per cent and mature adults 60 per cent. In Holland the main reason stated for using the system is to avoid dry eye from soft contact lens wear, and in the US Ortho K is seen as a non-surgical solution to vision correction.
Ian Goble, sales and marketing director of No7 Contact Lenses, which distributes Dreamlens Ortho K in the UK, said the potential for the technology was huge but there were barriers to growth.
These included the cost and low use of topographers in the UK, the lack of practitioner confidence with RGPs and a conservative approach. In the UK he said about 1 per cent of practices had a topographer, in the Netherlands that figure was 70 per cent.
'In the UK 90 per cent of Ortho K users are ex-soft lens wearers and a recent study of 2,000 soft lens wearers revealed that for 68 per cent comfort was their main concern. The market potential for Ortho K is huge,' Goble said.