October 5, 2008 
Night lenses correct vision while you sleep …
No matter how much it sounded scientificly-fantastic, for the last few years in the world and in Croatia a new method of ‘treating’ myopia is applied. It is an effective way of taking dioptre off without using the diopter lenses or glasses per day, but also without surgery, anesthesia and hospital rooms.
So-called night diopter lenses enable removal of dioptre without active correction of the glasses or contact lenses during the day. It is a type of specially designed therapeutic contact lens that temporarily remodel cornea while sleeping; they are like the mold and are worked separately for each patient.
It is precisely with these remodeling that the effect similar to the surgical removal of diopter is achieved, but its result are not permanent, and stop as soon as stop wearing night lenses, through 72 hours your dioptre is back and the cornea gets back its original shape.
ADVANTAGES OF THE METHOD
Although some believe that is the negative side, however, many experts point out the positive side of the temporary therapy. Specifically, the permanent change made with surgery – thinned cornea – can inflict problems while measuring the intraocular pressure, and also while calculating the shape of intraocular lenses in cataract surgery. These problems in applying the night lenses can not appear because after three weeks of not wearing lenses, eye pressure and other ophthalmic examinations are performed without problems and the results are reliable.
Night lenses have an effect already after the first wearing. For example, the diopter minus three will be reduced by half and this will be the state held six to ten hours. Every following wearing will affect on the further reduction, but also on the long-term maintenance. Final result would be zero diopter in duration from 12 to 15 hours.
A patient who decides to wear lenses at night, in consultation with his doctor about them, of course, must take care of them as well as of contact lenses. Due to poor hygiene, rinsing lenses in ordinary water and similar increases the risk of complications.
Since many texts, whether expert, whether journalistic, sometimes prevail with a plus, sometimes with minus method, the objective image is difficult to get.
WARNINGS IN THE PROFFESION
Although in our media the night lenses are discussed only for the last year, they have been appling in Europe and the world for more than four years. In this, Croatia ophthalmology doesn’t leave behind, although attitudes towards night lenses are divided.
Dr. med. Morena Gravić, an ophthalmologist in the polyclinic ‘Svjetlost’, althought knows for this method does not work with night lenses. She primarily consideres that it should be answered to the question whether it is natural for patients to see good for only a part of the day and, more importantly, the question of leakage of oxygen. Lenses, namely, are oxygen permeable, but it is questionable how much the eye, as it is closed at night, with the use of such lenses can really get oxygen.
With several private clinics, about temporary taking off the diopter you can consult in the Clinical Hospital “Sisters of Mercy ‘in Vinogradska street in Zagreb. MSc. Dean Sarić, a doctor at the Clinic for eye diseases in Vinogradska and subspecialist for micro and laser surgery, does not reject entirely the application of night lenses.
Doctor Sarić, despite the fact that he considers that night lenses for some people may be useful or ideal solution, warns of the danger and the wrong perception of the public or the media who tend to talk about it as a magic wand.
Correction by application of the method of night vision lenses, as we have already mentioned, is not permanent. Thus the efficiency is not complete. The method is not considered in particular the solution for people who doesn’t sleep much, have trouble sleeping or drive at night. For the performance of night lens it is required at least six hours of sleep and we must emphasize that for the same day after the cessation of lens wear their effects beacome weaker.
On the other hand, the use of night lenses is not cheap choice. Since they are made for each person individually and they last for only 12 months, the patient who decides for the night lenses, will have to extract for them from 500 to 800 euros per year.
The only permanent, and seen in the long term less expensive solution, is the laser. However, this operation is not permitted for children under the age of 18.
Therefore, before any decisions, with detailed examinations and consultations with several doctors, think twice about the advantages and disadvantages. Some will see the simplest solution in the good old traditional wearing glasses, while the ones already used to wearing contact lenses, this method will seem like an ideal choice. Laser surgery, however, brings with it new pluses and minuses.
Whatever you decide, there is no magic wand and scientific fantastic is still only a part of the fiction, though it is also coming closer to reality.
Taken from: www.tportal.hr