What is the Best Treatment for Keratoconus? By Jeff Broadhead O.D. on October 27, 2021

Are You a Little Freaked Out?

If you have keratoconus and have spent any time on the internet, you might be a little freaked out. You might wonder if you are heading for a corneal transplant!

For advanced cases of keratoconus, corneal transplants are still performed with remarkable results. If you need a corneal transplant, you need not fear it.

The great new is that new treatment options allow us to delay and often avoid corneal transplants all together.

What is Keratoconus?

In patients with keratoconus, a weakened cornea thins over time leading to visual distortions which make vision difficult or impossible to correct with eyeglasses or soft contacts.

Many patients do well enough with glasses in early stages. As the disease progresses and distortion becomes more debilitating, rigid contact lenses offer the best quality of vision.

Traditional rigid gas permeable (GP) contacts, our treatment of choice for many years, have clear disadvantages. Corneal GP lenses are smaller than the size of the cornea, are uncomfortable, and require long adaptation. Corneal GP lenses become less easy to fit as the disease advances.

What are Scleral Contact Lenses?

Scleral Lenses are today's treatment of choice for keratoconus. New advances in computer-guided lathes allow us to create highly customizeable lenses that rest on the sclera (the white part of the eye) and vault the cornea.

Scleral lenses provide sharp vision like a corneal GP lens with comfort that is similar to soft contact lenses.

Fitting scleral lenses is often an emotional experience for us and our patients. One man went from completely unuseable vision to seeing his daughter's face clearly for the first time...

Literally. Life. Changing. A few tears flowed that day.

If you have keratoconus, you owe it to yourself to schedule a consultation to find out if scleral contact lenses could work for you! Click here to request your consultation.