My Experience with Ortho C Lenses - Part 4: Final Review

Greetings all,

I have not written about my experience with my ortho c lens in quite a while. You can learn the history of my experience as follows:

My Experience with Ortho C Part 1
My Experience with Ortho C Part 2
My Experience with Ortho C Part 3

Back in December I got a new pair of lens but Mr. Yee said this was to do drills with. So I had to wear the regular lens he gave me and then wear the drill lens. I tried this for about a month and had to do it twice a week. I didn't really notice a difference and he said it would help probably 1 or 2 diopters. The drills were basically similar to a Bates exercise where you stand in front of this star object and look between 2 points and move your eyes from one point to another and do this 10 times.

I notice that many people would look up my blog to learn about ortho c lens and my initial journey began in the summer of 2007. I can say I didn't think these were good for me.

I have high myopia and initially my prescription was -8.5(right eye) and -8.00(left eye). I thought using the new lens for drills would help but I really didn't notice a difference but I also found the process too high maintenance for me and with little noticeable difference.

I had decided years ago that I wanted to improve my vision and control my myopia because like most myopes, I was getting tired of my prescription getting worse and being told the same excuse my eye is still growing. When you are in your late 20s, this excuse just doesn't fly anymore.

Anyways, it boiled down to ortho c lens or ortho k. I opted for ortho c because Yee claimed on his site it would be permanent. On my reviews, you can read more about my experience but last month I decided that I'd quit this ortho c nonsense. Perhaps my myopia was too high for Yee to correct and so maybe his technique is suitable for people with a lower prescription.

I decided I will try ortho k and yesterday went to get my eyes checked. Now I'm not going yet for the procedure, but it was to see if I'd be a suitable candidate. I had my prescription rechecked and my right eye was -8.25 and my left was -7.50. So 4.5 years ago my right was -8.5 and my left -8 so my right eye improved by .25 and my left .50.

So obviously this ortho c isn't long term because that initial 2 diopter improvement I had disappeared. I'm glad that I'm going to quit it. Yee wanted me to wear a weaker prescription and frankly I was getting tired of not seeing 20/20. I hope that ortho k will be effective. I've done some research on it and it seems better.

Ortho k is not permanent and only works if you keep wearing the lens. You are to wear the lens at night when you sleep and can see clearly with no contacts or glasses during the day. For some people they can go a few nights without wearing one after their eye has stabilized. Of course, the eye can see clearly all day depends on the myopia and it requires some time because in the beginning, your eye will not be able to see 20/20 all day but the process probably takes a few weeks, again depending on your prescription. The industry is improving so the lens are probably able to treat the problem quicker.

I have found 2 informative videos about ortho k:
The 1st video is a Fox news video on ortho k that explains overall the process. Normally I don't trust Fox news but this seemed legit. I think it's a good news story that covers this topic and there do seem to be some happy clients for whom this treatment was effective.
The 2nd video on youtube about ortho k is also informative and involves an interview with an ortho k optician.

I thought John Yee was sincere in his approach. The thing is that his product is just being developed by him, whereas ortho k has been developed for over 40 years and there are many people who have worked to improve it. It does make me wonder if he is stealing some of the concepts. I mean, with ortho k you have to use the lens regularly. Why would his lens require that you use it only for a few minutes and he claims the changes are permanent? Maybe he needs to modify his claims. I just don't feel he was being dishonest. Maybe he was naive with his research. Maybe he's just not a good scientist and in being innovative. Perhaps he did stumble upon something that was worth studying. But Ortho k has more scientific research behind it. It's been in development longer and it has more people involved in its improvement, where Yee is just one man. He should have his ortho c undergo more serious testing. He should have it peer reviewed. If ortho c was so effective, he should be training others in the field and really educating opticians. But none of this is done. He has a patent but that doesn't mean anything. He didn't charge me a lot of money and I really do feel he is sincere. I met him and never got the scammer vibe from him. I don't know enough about his list of clients and their experience. I just write about my own.

Overall I didn't get what I thought I would. Maybe my myopia was too high. I don't recommend ortho c. If my initial 2 diopter improvement was not sustainable, his lens are basically the same as an ortho k but at least with ortho k, they tell you it's not permanent and if you stop wearing them regularly your vision will go back to what it was.