If you’ve been dealing with vision issues that might be related to Higher Order Aberrations (HOAs) and have been told there is no solution for clearer vision, visiting an OVITZ-Authorized Doctor can be a validating and emotional experience. Whether your vision issues are corrected or you simply gain the relief of knowing your vision issues are real and understood, the experience can be life-changing.
You may have gone years or even decades with one eye doctor after another telling you that your vision is “as good as it is going to get” or that “You see 20/20 with your contact lenses, so your vision issues are all in your mind.”
However, the experience of many patients visiting OVITZ-Authorized Doctors is often quite the opposite: Your OVITZ-Authorized Doctor helps validate your vision issues with advanced testing, and can reduce or correct your HOAs, allowing you to enjoy activities like sports or night driving again.
Higher Order Aberrations (HOAs), microscopic imperfections in the eye, are often the cause of unresolved vision issues. HOAs can cause halos, glare, flares, starbursts, double vision, ghosting, blur and other visual anomalies, especially at night.
The difficulty in addressing HOAs often comes from the fact that optometry schools provide very limited training on this subject. While many doctors have heard of HOAs, the deeper understanding required to properly assess and address them is rarely part of standard Optometry education.
That’s why your next eye doctor should be an OVITZ-Authorized Doctor – someone with the right knowledge, training, experience and technology to accurately understand and address HOAs.
While each doctor’s specific procedure may vary slightly, OVITZ-Authorized Doctors generally follow similar steps to correct your Higher Order Aberrations.
Before fitting you with OVITZ HOA-correcting lenses, your OVITZ-Authorized Doctor will begin with a comprehensive eye exam, especially if you haven’t had one in over a year. This step helps determine if you’re a good candidate for HOA lenses and if it’s the right time to proceed with fitting. In addition to the general exam, your OVITZ-Authorized Doctor will also perform an OVITZ xwave aberrometry scan to measure the level of HOAs in your eyes.
In some cases, your symptoms may not be caused by HOAs, or other eye issues may need to be addressed first.
The OVITZ xwave aberrometer will show your doctor — and YOU — what you see. It simulates how you see the letters on the 20/20 line on an eye chart (‘Simulated E’) and also illustrates how your HOAs make you perceive a distant point of light, like a traffic light or headlights at night.
For instance, if you see double and ghosting, such as a letter E with a shadowed E above and to the right, the OVITZ xwave will display that exactly. Similarly, if headlights at night appear as starbursts, the OVITZ xwave will show you that effect too.
OVITZ-Authorized Doctors often report to us that their patients sometimes weep with relief because, for the first time in the patient’s life, someone else can finally see what they see. It’s at this point that the patient feels validated, emotional and knows that they are “not crazy.”
If you’re determined to be a good candidate for HOA-correcting lenses, your OVITZ-Authorized Doctor will select the best scleral lens design that can fit comfortably and stays stable on your eye.
Since HOAs exist at specific microscopic locations, even slight lens movement can impact the results. Scleral lenses, which rest on the sclera (the white part of the eye), provide excellent stability for effective HOA correction.
During the fitting, your doctor will find the most comfortable and stable design for your eye. Once the optimal fit is identified, an order will be placed with the contact lens laboratory. The lens you receive at your follow-up visit will have the basic prescription to address your vision needs and include special OVITZ markings, which help during the OVITZ xwave aberrometry scan to track lens movement and rotation for precise HOA optics design.
HOAs cause “aberrations” (distortions) in the light as it passes through the eye to the retina, which result in halos, glare, flares, starbursts, double vision, ghosting, blur and other visual anomalies you may be familiar with.
An aberrometer is an instrument that can detect these aberrations. But most aberrometers are built to detect other unrelated ocular conditions which do not always aid in diagnosing and correcting HOAs..
Your OVITZ-Authorized Doctor, an HOA specialist, will scan your eyes with the OVITZ xwave aberrometer, which is purpose-built specifically for detecting, diagnosing and correcting HOAs.
When your contact lens arrives, your OVITZ-Authorized Doctor will assess its fit on your eye. Once the lens is confirmed to be stable, comfortable, and well-fitting (referred to as the “Final Fit” lens), your OVITZ-Authorized Doctor will perform another OVITZ xwave aberrometry scan while you are wearing it in a completely dark room. This scan measures the HOAs through the lens, providing the data needed to design the OVITZ HOA optics.
The OVITZ xwave aberrometry data, along with your visual history and specific needs, is then sent to OVITZ’s optical engineers and vision scientists. Using OVITZ’s AI-powered algorithm and the world’s largest library of proven HOA designs, the OVITZ team creates a custom HOA design for your lens. Your custom HOA design is then sent to the contact lens laboratory, where the Final Fit lens is once again manufactured, this time with the OVITZ HOA-correcting optics added.
Your new OVITZ-Added lenses now feature OVITZ HOA optics, designed to enhance your vision by correcting higher-order aberrations. Although they still fit and feel like your ‘Final Fit’ lenses, they offer advanced optical benefits.
Your OVITZ-Authorized Doctor will perform an OVITZ xwave scan while you wear your OVITZ Added lenses, to determine how well the HOA optics are correcting your HOAs.
Your OVITZ-Authorized Doctor can even show you a scan showing you how much your HOAs have been reduced or eliminated, and you will be able to see for yourself — both on the OVITZ screen and in real life situations — how much your vision has improved.
Many of our patients notice an immediate change in their vision, typically as greatly reduced or virtually eliminated halos, glare, flares, starbursts, double vision, ghosting, blur and other visual anomalies. However, in some cases, it may take a few days, weeks, or even longer for the improvement to be fully realized. That’s because your brain had become accustomed to compensating for your HOAs. However, it can take time for your brain to adjust to the corrected vision — a process called Neural Adaptation.
But in almost all cases, patients are ultimately overwhelmed by how much their HOAs have been reduced or eliminated.
If you ever need or want a follow-up, whether due to vision changes, the need to replace your lenses, or losing a lens, your OVITZ-Authorized Doctor is available. Additionally, our network of OVITZ-Authorized Doctors across the U.S. is there to assist you if you are traveling or relocating.
Find an OVITZ-Authorized Doctor Today
Your Higher Order Aberrations have been intruding on your life for far too long already. Visiting an OVITZ-Authorized Doctor is the best thing you can do to restore your vision. Find an OVITZ-Authorized Doctor near you today. And if you love your eye doctors, but they are not yet OVITZ-Authorized, suggest that they visit us at OVITZ.us/doctors.
