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Tired of Reading Glasses?
What if you could reduce your dependence on reading glasses
- those unwelcome reminders that age is catching up with
you? What if you could enjoy your morning paper without
squinting? Read a menu without difficulty? Even work on the
computer without headaches? What if there was a procedure
for your farsightedness that didn't involve cutting or a
laser? Today, the question isn't "what if?" Today the answer
is CK -- a new vision procedure that can help decrease your
dependence on glasses to see things close up.
Conductive Keratoplasty (CK) is the only
procedure designed for farsightedness that uses
radiofrequency energy instead of a laser to correct your
vision. Approved by the FDA in 2002 after five years of
successful clinical trials in the US and abroad, CK has
proven to be a safe, effective alternative to laser surgery.
How does CK work?
CK uses a pen-shaped instrument with a
cool tip as thin as a human hair. After application of a
topical anesthetic (eye drops), Dr. Caplan will apply
radiofrequency energy in a circular pattern. This pattern is
along the periphery of the cornea and therefore minimizes
interference with your line of sight. The procedure is done
in our office. You're here about one hour on surgery day.
The CK treatment itself takes approximately fifteen minutes.
CK is considered painless. Once finished,
you don't have to wear a patch and can usually return to
work the next day. Vision continues to improve over the
course of the first month.
What results can I expect?
Near Vision Improvement
Two-thirds of our patients have good
distance vision and want to improve their near vision. As a
result, they only require CK in one eye. While this sounds
odd, it is a technique used widely in contact lenses and
Lasik for patients over age 40. The advantage with CK is
that the improvement in near vision comes with little change
in distance vision in the treated eye. It is similar to the
sound you hear from stereo speakers. A different sound comes
from each one, but they work together to provide the entire
range of sound. That is what you want to happen with your
vision - to see a more complete range of distance and near
again.
Our goal in offering CK is to restore
functional near vision for those who are over 40. For our
patients, the average improvement in near vision is
demonstrated below. For these same patients, on average,
they lose no distance vision binocularly.
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For most
of our patients, this is the size of type they can read
before CK.
This is
the size of type they can read after CK.
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Distance Vision Improvement
The remaining one-third of our patients
require CK in both eyes. They have become more farsighted
with age, and benefit from having treatment in one eye to
sharpen their distance vision, and treatment in the other
eye to sharpen their near vision. These patients experience
the same improvement as demonstrated above in near vision,
and improve on average from 20/40 to 20/20 at distance.
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