Corneal Refractive Therapy San Diego

What is Corneal Refractive Therapy?

Please know that as of August 1, 2023, we are only providing CRT services for our existing patients. If you are a prospective new patient to our office interested in CRT, please contact us and we can recommend you a qualified practitioner based on what's geographically convenient.

Corneal Refractive Therapy, or CRT, is a safe and effective treatment for temporarily reducing mild to moderate myopia or nearsightedness. CRT is still relatively unknown to the public, despite scientific validation and a growing contingent of satisfied wearers. These therapeutic contact lenses are worn just at nighttime during sleep to reshape the front curvature of the eye gently. The result is good daytime vision without any corrective lenses. Since there is no age restriction on the FDA approval, unlike with LASIK eye surgery about 70% of our CRT wearers are children.

A significant benefit of CRT is that the corrective effect is reversible so that after CRT lens wear is discontinued, the patient can eventually return to wearing their usual glasses or disposable contact lenses, or even undergo LASIK. You can think of CRT lenses like an orthodontic retainer but for the eyes instead. Although not proven beyond a reasonable doubt, there is reasonable scientific evidence that CRT may slow the natural progression of childhood myopia.  Eligible patients can also receive a prescription for low-dose atropine eye drops, an established treatment for minimizing childhood myopic progression.

Dr. Chou received certification to prescribe Corneal Refractive Therapy (CRT) in 2003 shortly after FDA approval was granted to CRT. Aside from having worn CRT lenses himself, he has written about how practitioners can improve the outcomes of CRT and has collaborated on several industry projects with the developer of CRT, Jerome Legerton, OD, MS, MBA.