OK glasses fitted by unqualified people may ruin your child’s eyes forever!

Produced by | Eye Health is Real

Author | Chen Zhenzhen

"The doctor at Peking University Third Hospital said that my child had keratitis and refused to wear the OK lenses. Two months later, we went to a private hospital and got a pair of lenses, but my eyes got red after I put them on. Later, we went to Peking University Third Hospital for another checkup, and the doctor said that the keratitis might not have completely healed, and that the OK lenses would wear away at our eyes. We don't wear them anymore because we're still worried about safety issues."

The above is a true experience of a parent of a myopic child who had to give up wearing OK glasses after fitting them for his child. The same child went to different medical institutions for treatment, some of which gave him OK glasses, while others did not. This is just a microcosm of the chaos in the OK glasses market.

There are many unqualified institutions that illegally fit OK lenses

If you enter the keyword "OK glasses" in the search engine, you will find that there are many OK glasses fitting institutions in the advertising information flow, and the advertisements are very loud.

OK lens fitting institutions displayed in the advertising information flow

The author contacted one of the private hospitals through the advertisement information. After a brief communication on WeChat, he learned that as long as the child is over 8 years old and has no eye disease after examination, he can wear OK glasses, but there is no explanation about other taboos. The prices of different brands of products in this institution vary, ranging from 4,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan per pair. The customer service also revealed that you can enjoy a discount of 500 to 800 yuan by registering for an appointment in the store.

Private hospitals clearly stated that they can provide OK lenses and offer discounts

Orthokeratology lenses, also known as OK lenses, are a special design of highly oxygen-permeable hard corneal contact lenses. The lenses themselves have no degree, but are a non-surgical method of temporarily changing the corneal refractive power by changing the geometric shape of the cornea to improve naked eye vision. Myopic patients wear them for 8-10 hours at night when they sleep, and they can temporarily have clear naked eye vision during the day, but the cornea that is pressed down will slowly rebound, and they continue to wear them at night, and so on.

OK lenses belong to the third category of medical devices in China . In order to ensure the safety of wearing lenses, the country has extremely high requirements for their materials, production and clinical application range. As early as 2001, the former Ministry of Health issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Orthokeratology Lenses Fitting in Medical Institutions", requiring that orthokeratology lenses must be fitted in medical institutions of level 2 (including level 2) or above with a "Medical Institution Practice License"; ophthalmology must be included in the diagnosis and treatment subjects registered by the medical institution; the personnel should be ophthalmologists with intermediate or higher professional titles and technicians with intermediate or higher professional titles with practicing physician qualifications, and they should have received relevant knowledge training and passed the examination.

The author searched the official website of the National Health Commission and found that most of the institutions that appeared in the search engine and openly engaged in the business of OK glasses were unclassified or first-class medical institutions. In other words, for the sake of profit, institutions without qualifications for fitting OK glasses were illegally providing related services!

Medical institution level query results

Only by doing the first step right can the OK lens be OK. The State Food and Drug Administration has issued a special consumer reminder for orthokeratology lenses: Even if orthokeratology lenses are used correctly, there is still a risk of eye diseases such as corneal endothelial cell reduction and giant papillary conjunctivitis. If the lenses are not fitted according to the requirements, it is more likely to cause abnormal phenomena such as increased eye secretions, eye congestion, and excessive tears, which will increase the risk of corneal epithelial damage such as corneal ulcers, keratitis, corneal erosion, iritis and other eye diseases. If treatment is delayed, permanent vision damage may occur.

Fitting OK glasses is a rigorous medical procedure and must be done in a regular medical institution. Before fitting glasses, you can check the hospital qualifications through the official website of the National Health Commission (http://zgcx.nhc.gov.cn:9090/unit).

In addition to the fitting process, the OK lens sales process is also very complicated.

Under the huge profits, OK lens has hidden kickback rules

The low cost and high price of OK lenses have always been criticized by consumers.

Take Optoelectronics, the leading domestic OK lens company, as an example. In 2020, Optoelectronics' corneal refractive lenses had a revenue of 520 million yuan, a unit price of 1,114 yuan per piece, and a gross profit margin of 90.21%. Calculations show that the cost of its related products is only 109.06 yuan per piece. Guosheng Securities once released a research report stating that the ex-factory price of OK lenses is generally only 10%-20% of the terminal price. A parent of a myopic child told the author, "The total price of the pair of OK lenses I just bought for my child is 12,400 yuan. A pair needs to be replaced every 1.5-2 years, and the monthly maintenance costs for flushing fluid, care solution, etc. are about 400 yuan."

The factory price is only a few hundred yuan, but the final price to consumers is tens of thousands of yuan. Undoubtedly, from the manufacturer to the distributor, then to the dealer, and finally to the relevant store or hospital department, there is always room for "rent-seeking".

Dealers working with doctors at ophthalmology hospitals have led to corruption cases. On July 23, 2020, the Judgment Documents Network published a case of an ophthalmology director taking bribes, revealing the gray interest chain behind the huge profits of OK glasses.

Judgment Documents Network Publishes Bribery Case of Director of Ophthalmology Department

The criminal ruling shows that in 2013, Chen Jingsheng, then director of the ophthalmology department of Jingzhou Maternal and Child Health Hospital, reached a cooperation intention with Zhang, an agent of Hefei Ou Mou Shi Company, whereby the supplier gave the hospital 15% of its sales profits. Since then, due to the "competition" among the three distributors, the rebate ratio has been repeatedly increased until it reached 50% in 2015.

In summary, from June 2013 to June 2017, the Ophthalmology Department of Jingzhou Maternal and Child Health Hospital received a total of 512,615 yuan in kickbacks from suppliers of orthokeratology lenses.

In addition to the individual cases of 50% kickbacks disclosed by the China Judgments Online, kickbacks have become an "unspoken rule" in the OK lens industry within a certain range. According to the Securities Times, an ophthalmologist at a tertiary hospital in the Yangtze River Delta revealed that the kickback for directly fitting glasses in his hospital is about 10%, the kickback for referring to OK lens stores outside the hospital is 15%-20%, and the kickback for fitting glasses when the doctor is at a private hospital is 10%.

Even with high rebates, it is still profitable, which shows the huge profits in the OK lens industry.

The cost of OK lenses is often tens of thousands, but the effect varies from person to person

OK lenses can alleviate myopia progression, but the effect varies from person to person, and is not as magical as advertised by the manufacturer. Not all myopic patients are suitable for wearing them. For example, people under 8 years old, with myopia greater than 600 degrees, and those with severe trachoma, keratitis, dry eye and other eye diseases are all contraindicated for wearing OK lenses.

The "Guidelines for Myopia Prevention and Treatment" issued by the National Health Commission in 2018 pointed out that long-term wearing of orthokeratology lenses can delay the progression of axial length of adolescents by about 0.19mm/year. The "White Paper on Myopia Management (2019)" pointed out that orthokeratology lenses can effectively slow down the growth of the axial length of myopic eyes by about 0.15mm/year, with a moderate myopia control effect (0.25-0.50D/year), and a myopia control effect of 35%-60%. This percentage can be understood in a popular way: if a myopic child wears frame glasses and his eye weight increases by 100 degrees each year, then after he wears orthokeratology lenses in a standardized manner, his eye weight will likely increase by about 50 degrees each year. However, the actual specific percentage is closely related to the family's myopia genetic history, personal eye hygiene, and living habits.

Eye safety is a big deal. Before parents decide to buy OK glasses for their children, they really need to be concerned about the following:

Have you found a regular and qualified ophthalmology hospital (ophthalmologist, optometrist) to fit OK glasses for your child? Don't believe the sales pitch of roadside optical shops and the exaggerated claims in online advertisements. They generally won't proactively tell consumers that "OK glasses can only delay but not cure myopia."

After wearing OK lenses, have you done enough follow-up care and follow-up visits? Compared to frame glasses, wearing OK lenses is a very delicate job. You need to clean your hands and lenses every time you wear them to avoid contamination, and you also need to go to the hospital for regular checkups. If you don't do enough care and follow-up visits, it is easy to cause complications such as keratitis and conjunctivitis.

In addition to trying to find a "magic weapon" to relieve myopia, have you paid attention to cultivating children's good eye habits? OK glasses only treat the symptoms, not the root cause. Prevention and control of myopia must start from the source. Scientific use of eyes and ensuring sufficient outdoor exercise time are also important habits that cannot be ignored.

Many Chinese parents have a deep-rooted concept that no one should suffer but the child should suffer. Some OK lens operators take advantage of this mentality and pursue huge profits, which brings great safety risks to children. Therefore, parents should not "seek medical treatment in haste" and beware of OK lens consumption traps. For the entire OK lens industry, behind the excitement, there are shortcomings in sales, diagnosis and treatment that need to be solved urgently.

References:

[1]American Academy of Ophthalmology

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/glasses-contacts/what-is-orthokeratology

[2] Xin’an Evening News, “Optoelectronics: Going public is to better establish the brand”

http://epaper.ahwang.cn/xawb/20190804/html/page_01_content_000.htm

[3] “Technical Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents” http://www.nhc.gov.cn/jkj/s5898bm/201910/c475e0bd2de444379402f157523f03fe.shtml

[4] The “IQ tax” of OK lenses

https://www.zhihu.com/market/paid_magazine/1403342285828878336/section/1403342330510888960?is_share_data=true&offsitepage=1&utm_source=wechat_session&utm_medium=social&utm_oi=736704848329736192

[5] Criminal ruling of the second instance of the Ophthalmology Department of Jingzhou Maternal and Child Health Hospital and Chen Jingsheng’s unit taking bribes

https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/website/wenshu/181107ANFZ0BXSK4/index.html?docId=wxS4h485yWs2PyHWve/oQP81x mBqsEKsfFl4JcGcCQYXZZZ+BQYdjpO3qNaLMqsJKn5luaNG8PjySZ2hB0SmJa7D+JKOZbBb6VOsjb2DaxwUkW1PRpMEY9rCsLSAW1Aj

This article is an original article from NetEase (Yanjianweishi) and may not be reproduced without permission.