Are you farsighted (hyperopic)?
Are you interested in possibly improving your vision?
Are you between the ages of 5 and 12 years?
Are you interested in wearing contact lenses?
If you can answer YES to these questions for your child please read on…
What is the study about? We want to test whether a special (bifocal) type of soft contact lens can reduce farsightedness over time. (If you have difficulty seeing close objects without glasses, you may be farsighted). Animal studies suggest that certain types of contacts might encourage smaller, hyperopic eyes to grow longer, causing their farsightedness to lessen. To test this, we need to compare how people wearing these bifocal lenses change their level of farsightedness over time against those wearing regular soft contact lenses. As a participant, you would be asked to wear one of these two types of lenses. What you wear will be determined much like in a lottery. It will be necessary that neither you nor your optometrist know what contact lens type you are wearing until the end of the study.
What do you need to do? You will be required to answer some questions by phone, then attend an initial eye exam to determine your suitability and then five more exams over a period of 12 months to make the measurements for the study. All exams will be carried out at the private practice of Dr. Aller in San Bruno.
What will you get out of the study? Free eye exams as well as one year’s supply of contact lenses and contact lens solutions. At the end of the study, you can also find out all about your eyes, and be one of the first to know which type of treatment (one type of contact lenses) works best for causing hyperopic improvement. You can also get a prescription for the lens type that works best if it is not the one you have been wearing. If the first year shows a beneficial effect of these lenses, the study may be extended for a second year.
Research Team
Thomas Aller OD, Study optometrist, in private practice, San Bruno
Christine F Wildsoet OD PhD, Professor UC Berkeley School of Optometry, Consultant
Maria Liu, MD, OD, PhD UC Berkeley School of Optometry, Consultant
Phone or send an e-mail for more information
Phone: (650) 871-1816; e-mail: cptreyes@earthlink.net
You will also be asked some simple questions to see if you are suitable for our study.