Paragon CRT Contact Lenses in Michigan

Paragon CRT is a corneal refractive therapy lens — a rigid lens you wear overnight that gently reshapes the front of your cornea while you sleep. You take it out in the morning and see clearly all day, with no glasses and no daytime contacts.

Dr. Shira Kresch, OD, MS, FAAO fits Paragon CRT at Michigan Contact Lens in Southfield, for children whose nearsightedness is progressing and for adults who want their days lens-free. Your initial consultation is complimentary and no referral is needed.

What CRT stands for, and how it fits with Ortho-K

CRT is short for corneal refractive therapy. Paragon CRT is a specific brand and lens design; corneal refractive therapy is what it does.

If you have been reading about Ortho-K, orthokeratology, night lenses, sleeping contacts or overnight vision correction — CRT belongs to that same category. Orthokeratology is the general approach: reshape the cornea overnight, see clearly by day. Paragon CRT is one of the two lens designs most widely fitted for it in the United States.

The designs differ in their geometry and in the fitting software behind them, not in the principle. Which one suits your eye is a clinical decision taken from your corneal map — not a preference, and not something to choose from a brochure.

How overnight corneal reshaping works

The intuition most people have is that the lens presses the cornea flat. It does not, and the real mechanism is worth understanding because it explains why the treatment is so completely reversible.

A CRT lens uses a reverse-geometry design: flatter than your cornea in the centre, then steeper in a ring further out. Under a closed eyelid, that shape changes how the tear film sits in the space between lens and eye. The tear layer redistributes the cornea’s outermost cells — thinning the epithelium very slightly at the centre, thickening it in a ring around that.

That reshaped surface has a flatter central curve, which brings light to focus on the retina instead of in front of it. For a nearsighted eye, that is the correction.

Only the epithelium is involved — the outermost cell layer, which renews itself continuously anyway. Nothing structural is touched, nothing is cut, and nothing is removed. Because those cells keep renewing, the reshaping is maintained nightly rather than banked: stop wearing the lenses and your cornea returns to its original shape over days to weeks.

Who Paragon CRT is for

Children with progressing myopia

This is the most common reason we fit it. When a child’s prescription climbs year after year, CRT does two jobs at once — it corrects their vision during the day, and overnight corneal reshaping is one of the established approaches for slowing how fast the myopia progresses.

That second job is the one that matters over a lifetime. Higher myopia carries a higher long-term risk of retinal problems, so slowing progression is about considerably more than avoiding thicker lenses. See myopia control in children and when to start myopia control.

For families, the practical appeal is simple: a child who swims, wrestles, plays soccer or loses things does not have to manage glasses or daytime lenses at all.

Adults who want lens-free days

CRT is not only a children’s treatment, though it is often described that way.

Adults come to us for it because they swim or play contact sports; because dusty, dry or air-conditioned workplaces make daytime lenses uncomfortable by mid-afternoon; because dry eye turns soft lens wear into a daily negotiation; or simply because they want to be free of glasses without surgery.

It is also worth a conversation if you are not a candidate for laser surgery — a cornea too thin for LASIK, an unstable prescription, or dry eye that surgery would make worse. CRT asks nothing irreversible of your cornea, which is a genuinely different proposition from a procedure that removes tissue.

When CRT is not the right tool

CRT works best for low to moderate nearsightedness, with or without a modest amount of astigmatism. It is a poor choice if your prescription falls outside what the lens design can reshape, if you have significant dry eye or active ocular surface disease, if you have a history of corneal infection or certain corneal conditions, or if the nightly cleaning routine is not something you can commit to. That last one is a safety judgement rather than a criticism — overnight lens wear is not something to take on casually.

One important distinction. CRT reshapes a cornea that is regular to begin with. If your cornea is already irregular — keratoconus, a corneal transplant, post-surgical ectasia — then reshaping is not the answer and scleral lenses are. Those vault over the cornea entirely instead of remoulding it. It is a common point of confusion, and getting it wrong wastes months.

If CRT is not right for you, it is not the only option: MiSight daily lenses, atropine and the other myopia control approaches each suit different patients.

What the fitting involves

Corneal topography first. Before any lens is ordered, we map the shape of your cornea in detail. A CRT lens is designed to that map — this is not a stock lens chosen from a shelf, and a reverse-geometry lens fitted without a proper map is guesswork. See our technology.

Design and manufacture. The lens is designed to your measurements and made for your eye. This takes time; it is not a same-day fitting.

Training before the lenses go home. Nobody leaves with lenses until insertion, removal, cleaning and storage have been demonstrated and practised here — with the parent included, for a child. Most problems seen with overnight lenses trace back to handling that was never properly taught.

Follow-up on a schedule. We check the corneal surface, the fit and the response through the settling period and then at intervals. Early changes are visible to us long before you would notice them, which is precisely why the schedule exists.

The first two weeks

Most wearers see a marked improvement after the first few nights, with vision stabilising over one to two weeks as the cornea settles. Higher prescriptions take longer, and some patients use interim glasses for the first week.

Early fluctuation — sharper in the morning, softening by evening, different from one day to the next — is expected rather than a sign of failure. Once the fit has settled, most wearers get a full day of stable vision from a night’s wear.

For what to expect in detail, including the symptoms that mean stop and call us the same day, see are Ortho-K lenses safe?

What it costs

There is no single price, because a CRT fitting is a process rather than a product. What you are paying for is the corneal mapping, the custom lens design, the fitting, the handling training, and the follow-up visits through the settling period. See what drives the cost for a full breakdown.

Michigan Contact Lens is out-of-network by choice, which means the clinical decision about your eyes is ours and yours rather than an insurance plan’s. We provide a detailed superbill you can submit for out-of-network reimbursement, and we accept HSA and FSA funds, CareCredit, and in-house payment plans. See Insurance & Payment Options.

Your initial consultation is complimentary, and you will leave knowing what your own fitting would involve before committing to anything.

Paragon CRT in Southfield and Metro Detroit

Overnight corneal reshaping is one of the specialty fittings this practice does most, alongside scleral lenses. Michigan Contact Lens is at 17000 W. 10 Mile Rd., Suite 150, Southfield, MI 48075 — convenient to Birmingham, Royal Oak, Troy, Farmington Hills, West Bloomfield, Novi, Oak Park, Huntington Woods, Rochester Hills and Detroit.

No referral is needed, and you can book directly.

Wondering whether Paragon CRT would work for you or your child?

Your initial consultation is complimentary — corneal mapping, a clear assessment, and an honest answer about whether overnight corneal reshaping is the right tool for your eyes.

Book a Free Consultation or call (248) 545-2800