How Specialty Contact Lenses Help Keratoconus Patients See Better
- Posted on: Oct 31 2022
About one in every 2,000 Americans develops keratoconus, a degenerative eye condition that causes the cornea to slowly bulge. As the cornea becomes more conical, the patient develops astigmatism. While reversing the damage to the cornea is not possible for keratoconus patients, specialty contact lenses are a good way to restore crisp, clear vision. The eye doctors at Pamel Vision & Laser Group share their thoughts on specialty lenses here.
Effects of Keratoconus and How Specialty Lenses Help
A patient’s vision steadily diminishes the longer keratoconus is not contained. Vision becomes blurry and distorted, with night vision being especially difficult. These symptoms are often accompanied by sensitivity to light. As a result, patients with keratoconus have a harder time moving around safely and independently. Some cannot stand to be outside in the sunlight without sunglasses, and some are unable to drive at night. Specialty keratoconus lenses play a big role in improving vision so patients can live a normal life despite having this condition.
Types of Specialty Contact Lenses
The type of contact lens a patient uses is often determined by how far keratoconus has progressed. Thanks to corneal cross-linking, most patients can stop or dramatically slow the progression of keratoconus. Ideally, this prevents these patients from needing the contacts meant for the most advanced stages of keratoconus.
Specialty Soft Lenses: For the earliest stages of keratoconus, specialty soft lenses may suffice. They are like traditional soft lenses, except thicker and meant for higher levels of astigmatism.
Rigid Gas Permeable Lenses: RGP lenses are most used by patients with mild to moderate progression of keratoconus. They correct astigmatism by focusing the light directly at the retina for clearer vision. Hybrid lenses that combine elements of a soft lens and RGP lens are available, but they generally only help patients with early keratoconus.
Scleral Lenses: Scleral lenses are the top choice for most patients, in part because they help people with even the most advanced stages of keratoconus. These contacts are much larger than the average contact and rest on the sclera, which is the white part of the eye. This makes it easy to improve vision of a severely bulging cornea and avoids scarring the cornea by not touching it at all.
Prosthetic Scleral Devices: Pamel Vision & Laser Group is proud to offer EyePrintPRO™ technology to print a prosthetic shell that fits precisely on the curvature of the patient’s eye. Although this shell is not technically a contact lens, it serves many of the same functions to achieve improved comfort and vision.
Learn More about Specialty Lenses
If you have keratoconus and find that normal contact lenses are not sufficient to correct your astigmatism, please contact the keratoconus specialists at Pamel Vision & Laser Group in New York City to learn more about specialty lenses. For an appointment, please call (212) 355-2215.
Posted in: Keratoconus
