Who’s a candidate for scleral lenses?
Scleral lenses are generally utilized in situations that trigger an irregularly formed cornea, corresponding to keratoconus, and situations that contain corneal transplants or corneal scarring. However they’re additionally used to assist individuals with extreme dry eye illness and ocular floor illness, Campani says.
- Corneal illnesses and situations that trigger corneal abnormalities
- Different types of irregularities corresponding to astigmatism
- Refractive surgical procedure sufferers, corresponding to those that have undergone LASIK eye surgical procedure
- Scarring or corneal harm from trauma
- Ailments that have an effect on the eyelids or the realm across the eyes
- A situation by which remedy have to be utilized to the floor of the attention and held there
Galor says scleral lenses are particularly helpful for sufferers whose eyes have problem producing or sustaining sufficient tears. For instance, within the case of Stevens-Johnson syndrome, the place long-term restoration of the ocular floor might be restricted, scleral lenses present a steady lubricating surroundings for the extraordinarily dry and broken ocular floor, she says.
It additionally helps if remedy is required, she says. “A fluid reservoir beneath the lens helps shield the cornea and hydrate it all through the day. In sure sufferers, we may add remedy to the reservoir together with preservative-free saline,” she says.
Scleral lenses will not be restricted to individuals who already put on contact lenses. “We’ve quite a lot of sufferers who’ve by no means used contacts earlier than and are utilizing these lenses to deal with dry eye,” Kanefsky says.
Nonetheless, scleral lenses will not be appropriate for everybody. Sufferers should have good hand-eye coordination and handbook dexterity, as they require every day insertion, elimination, and cleansing. “For instance, sufferers with hand tremors, extreme arthritis, or younger youngsters could expertise an much more troublesome state of affairs,” Kanefsky says.
For a lot of sufferers, carrying lenses might be scary at first. Kanefsky stated she remembers becoming a scleral lens for the primary time on a affected person who had undergone two consecutive corneal transplants greater than 10 years in the past.
“The largest problem up to now is overcoming the worry of getting to steadiness a frighteningly massive object crammed with liquid precariously in your fingertips whereas mendacity face down on a desk or sink, praying that it does not fall into the drain and that no air bubbles get in it,” Kanefsky stated. “As soon as sufferers get by that steep studying curve, the lens itself might be actually life-changing.”
The affected person additionally must have steady cornea and eye tissue to tolerate the lens, Campani says. In case you have had a corneal transplant and are experiencing stress or swelling, scleral lenses might not be a great choice till the realm has calmed down.
