A Comprehensive Guide to Scleral Contact Lenses for Keratoconus Patients

If you have keratoconus, you might be wondering which type of contact lens is best for your condition. The answer is simple: scleral contact lenses. In this article, we'll provide a comprehensive guide to scleral lenses, covering everything you need to know about them, from their benefits to their drawbacks.

What Are Scleral Contact Lenses?

Scleral lenses are large contact lenses that are made of a gas permeable material. They differ from soft contact lenses in that they are not soft and flimsy and can turn inside out. Instead, they are a rigid contact lens that holds its shape. The reason they are called "scleral" contact lenses is that they rest on the white outer part of the eye that we call the sclera. Because of this lens design, the scleral lens can completely vault over the irregular cone that we see with the diagnosis of keratoconus, providing excellent benefits.

Benefits of Scleral Contact Lenses

Superior eyesight and vision: Scleral contact lenses often give superior eyesight and vision because they are filled with a saline solution that is then applied to the front surface of the eye. That saline solution fills in all the warpage of the cone and gives us almost a perfect engineered front surface to the eye. Along with the fact that these lenses can be engineered with the needed power for you to see your very best, they can eliminate glare, halos, and any distortions that you may see because of an irregular cornea.

Helps treat dry eyes: Scleral lenses are filled with a saline solution, which is applied to the front surface, basically bathing the front of your eye in your tears. This can be really helpful for people with dry eyes and other healing issues on the surface of their eyes.

Long lifespan: Because these lenses are made of a rigid gas permeable material, if they're well taken care of, and assuming your prescription doesn't change very much, then these lenses can last multiple years.

Drawbacks of Scleral Contact Lenses

Longer fitting time: These lenses take a lot longer time to fit because they are 100 percent custom fit lenses for you and each of your eyes. The fit of scleral lenses is so technical that your doctor has to have it fit on each quadrant of your eye just right, and then the prescription of the lens has to be adjusted, and the height of the lens has to be adjusted. There are a lot of small calculations that need to be made, so it's going to take a little bit longer for your doctor to get all the proper measurements, order the lens, have it custom made for you, have it shipped back, and then fit it on your eye and make more adjustments. It's not unusual for that to have to take a few tries, but again, it is a custom item, so just understand and expect that it's not going to be like an overnight fitting process.

Tricky to get in and take off: Scleral lenses are of a larger diameter and filled with a saline solution, making them a bit more tricky to get into the eye than your standard soft contact lenses. In the author's experience, many people struggle early on with learning how to put them in and take them out.

Conclusion

If you have keratoconus, you may find scleral contact lenses to be the best choice for your condition. While they offer many benefits, such as superior eyesight and vision and dry eye treatment, there are also some drawbacks to consider, such as the longer fitting time and difficulty in getting them in and out of your eyes. However, with some patience and guidance from your eye doctor, scleral