This article was originally published in a sponsored newsletter.

Cary Herzberg, OD, is a true pioneer in the field of myopia management. He practices at DuPage Optical in Addison, IL. This is the first part of an interview about his 50-year journey.

How did your career in optometry begin?

Dr. Herzberg: My father and grandfather were optometrists so it was kind of a foregone conclusion that I would follow in their footsteps. I graduated from the Illinois College of Optometry in 1971. We were the first four-year class, so we had an extra year of clinic.

I was in the military reserves for six years, so I got to spend weekends at a local hospital working with an ophthalmologist and a group of residents. In the meantime, I joined the family practice where my father was something of an expert rigid lens fitter. This was before soft lenses, so rigid lenses became a foundation of my knowledge and my practice. It shaped a lot of my direction, but I was always into preventive care.

I found the older patient population frustrating, because if you told them exactly what you thought, they didn't like you anymore! So, I spent a lot of time thinking that pediatrics was really the way to go for me. I thought, “rigid lenses change lives, so why not start early and shape lives?”

How did you get interested in orthokeratology?

Dr. Herzberg: Newton Wesley, OD, was from my part of the world. He and Steve Grant, OD, got me interested in orthokeratology even though, in those days, it meant simply fitting lenses flatter than K. But we found that low myopes there responded very well, and they would take their contact lenses off and could actually see for a while. Of course, we didn't fully understand the process, but we thought this was pretty cool. I thought that instead of watching patients vision get worse, I could actually make it better.

How did the practice of orthokeratology evolve?

Dr. Herzberg: The early experience was the foundation, but then in the 1980s, reverse geometry lenses appeared. This helped bridge the gap into higher prescriptions, and the lenses centered much better. Then, when overnight orthokeratology was approved in the early 2000s, I was able to give patients the freedom from lenses during the day. My feeling was always that a child deserves the right to go swimming and play baseball and not to worry about glasses or contact lenses. This was always my goal, and I still believe it to be an amazing gift. The unexpected bonus was that we discovered that we were slowing the progression of myopia!