CRT Article
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It's a sight for sore eyes or at least nearsighted ones.
New technology has now made it possible to correct nearsighted vision to 20/20 vision or better by simply wearing special contact lenses only at night. It's called Paragon CRT, which stands for Corneal Refractive Therapy, and no surgery is involved.
"This CRT is the most amazing non-surgical method of vision correction I have seen in my 30-plus years as an eyecare professional," said Dr. Wayne Fuller of Fuller Optical, who is one of the few optometrists in the Cullman area offering the new treatment.
The FDA-approved method uses special contact lenses worn only at night to reshape the eye's cornea, correcting nearsightedness and mild astigmatism.
"There are wing cells in the epithelium of the cornea," he said. "As you sleep (wearing the CRT lenses), these wing cells migrate peripherally and this allows the cornea to change shape, like LASIK."
Gabriel Argo, a pharmacist and one of Fuller's patients, was one of the first to try the new treatment when Fuller first began offering Paragon CRT.
"We were talking about LASIK surgery and Dr. Fuller suggested CRT as an alternative," said Argo, who has been wearing glasses or contacts since he was 13. "I enjoy it a lot because now I don't have to worry about contacts during the day."
Fuller said nearly all his patients achieved 20//20 vision or better in just a few days.
According to Paragon, the treatment can take anywhere up to two weeks to take full effect. Fuller said he provides temporary soft contact lenses in appropriate prescriptions to his patients during the transitional period as their eyesight improves. The CRT lenses themselves still function like regular contact lenses if a patient has to get up at night.
Fuller said "Unlike LASIK and other corrective surgical procedures, Paragon CRT is not permanent."
"The good thing about CRT is that it's reversible," he said. "So if you wanted to go back to square one, you just take out the contacts and stop wearing them, and your eyesight would go back after about 72 hours."
The therapy is approved for nearsightedness up to 6.00 diopters and astigmatism of up to 1.75 diopters.
"Anyone that falls within this area would be a good candidate if their eye curvature is not too flat," Fuller said.
He said Paragon CRT generally costs just under $1,000, depending on the difficulty of fitting the individual patient. Paragon recommends the lenses be changes out every year, but Fuller said the lenses could last much longer.
"If the lenses are working well, I don't make the patient change his lenses," he said.
Argo said Fuller includes nearly everything in the initial price.
Argo said Fuller includes nearly everything in the initial price.
"The follow-up appointments were all included in his price,"Argo said. "After you first get the contacts, checkups are fairly regular, then move to once a month and once every few months. It's a graduated process."
Fuller said he has had over 30 years of experience with contact lenses, and his initial training with rigid contacts makes him well suited to administer CRT.
"My professional contact lens training was exclusively with rigid contacts before graduation," Fuller said. "This makes fitting the CRT nighttime retainer lenses much easier for me to fit than for doctors whose recent professional education includes mostly soft contacts."
"Dr. Fuller is great," Argo said. "I've loved dealing with him, and the office staff is wonderful."
For those nervous about LASIK or other surgical treatments, CRT is a good alternative, Fuller said.
"Orthokeratology, which is improving uncorrected vision with the application of rigid contact lenses, has been taken to a new level with the FDA-approved CRT procedure by Paragon," Fuller said.
Asked if he would recommend the therapy to friends and family, Argo responded, "Absolutely."