Isaacs (right) explains how to use the topographer to check the surface of the cornea.
SHE remembers that day vividly.
One moment, she was smiling at her childhood best friend she was sitting with at the back row, and the next, squinting at her teacher standing by the blackboard.
Worried, she debated at length on whether or not she should tell her parents.
Eventually, when her teacher pointedly asked her why she was squinting, she knew she had to tell her parents.
Isaacs (right) with fellow optometrist Dr Chung Kah Meng during the interview.
She was quickly brought to an optometrist and diagnosed with myopia. Also known as near-sightedness or short-sightedness, a study in 2013, covering 400 preschool children in Kuching, found myopia prevalent in 4.5 per cent of the four- to six-year-olds involved.
She was one of the many myopia-afflicted cases. But what if you could turn back time and prevent myopia? Impossible, you might say. Not so, according to Dr Stan Isaacs.
Isaacs graduated with a Bachelor of Optometry with Honours from the University of New South Wales, and a year later, was awarded a Master of Optometry.
He started his private practice, specialising in paediatric optometry and contact lenses in 1977 and was responsible for the formation of the Singapore Optometric Association in 1980.
Now, as president of the Singapore Contact Lens Society and the Society of Orthokeratology Singapore, Isaacs said there’s a method which could correct, and effectively prevent, short-sightedness if used at a young age.
“When it comes to correcting myopia, we have a few things at our disposal – special glasses to try and control the myopia, special soft and hard contact lenses, and low-dose atropine eye drops.
“The thing is the lenses and glasses work, but not extremely well, when it comes to controlling myopia. The eye drops, as with any other chemical, are absorbed into the body and may carry various side effects.
“But with any other drug, the effectivity slows down and the need to use it grows longer and longer,” Isaacs told thesundaypost.
So what exactly can you do to prevent myopia?
Isaacs (second left) with other optometrists looking at a corneal topographer.
Isaacs suggested giving orthokeratology, otherwise known as ortho-K, a go.
“Ortho-K is the process of fitting special gas-permeable contact lenses, designed to be worn overnight which reshape the cornea.
“While the patient sleeps, the lenses gently and gradually reshape the surface of the eye, and when the patient wakes up and takes the contact lenses out, he or she should be able to see clearly throughout the day without wearing glasses or other contact lenses,” Isaacs explained.
In the case of myopia prevention, especially in children, Isaacs said what ortho-K aims to do is ensure the myopia does not increase.
“If the lenses are well-fitted and designed according to the shape of the eye, there really should not be much increase in the power at all.
“So what we’re doing is fitting children with these lenses so that they don’t become very short-sighted,” Isaacs said, adding that doing so could help curb eye problems such as cataracts, degeneration, retina tears, and other problems that could lead to blindness if left untreated.
A young patient shows optometrists how he inserts the ortho-K lenses.
So who can benefit from utilising ortho-K?
According to Isaacs, almost anyone with myopia is a good candidate for the treatment. However, kids or young adults are especially good candidates because they aren’t good candidates for Lasik (laser vision correction) or refractive surgery.
“Of course, the earlier the myopia is detected, the more effective the ortho-K treatment will be. Ortho-K fittings typically take multiple visits to get right and it’s likely that multiple sets of temporary lenses and several months will be required to get a perfect fit.
“Ultimately, this process of getting the right tailored fit is worth the time and will yield better results for vision correction,” he added.
While ortho-K is not a recent or brand-new innovation in optometry (the technique has its roots in scientific discoveries dating back to the 1940s), the prevalence or knowledge about the procedure is not as widely known in Malaysia.
But with what we do know about ortho-K, it does seem like things are clearing up and hopefully, so will short-sightedness.