Lately, scleral lenses have been popular in the contact lens world. There have been global conferences dedicated to finding out how to fit these, well, special, contact lenses. The market has focused on providing education for consumers as well as eye doctors about scleral lenses. These lenses have been used to manage keratoconus for the past ten years. Their uses have expanded over time as the price has decreased and new uses for these lenses have been discovered. Scleral lenses offer better, more stable vision and superior comfort to soft lenses, particularly for patients with astigmatism. Scleral lenses offer relief for patients with dry eyes and for those who have poor comfort with soft lenses. Patients that have scars or corneal defects, such as non-healing scratches, and those who experience pain and discomfort with other lenses can find relief with scleral lenses.
Scleral lenses work as a closed system where the lens never touches the cornea. Instead, the lens is filled with saline solution before being placed on the eye. The lens vaults over the cornea to land on the Scleral. This fit makes scleral lenses particularly helpful for post-Lasik patients who have poor vision or discomfort from dry eyes. The Lasik procedure flattens the central part of the cornea, making it difficult to fit most contact lenses for post-Lasik patients. Because scleral lenses do not touch the cornea, these lenses are often the best choice for post-Lasik patients.
These exciting new uses for scleral lenses have opened the door to improved vision and comfort for many patients. New lens designs, materials, and coatings have increased their wearability, comfort, and affordability, and the development of new instruments makes it easier than ever to fit lenses with better results. The future has never been brighter.
As the prices have come down for them, we have found many more uses and we have found many more applications where they Excel. We have found that patients who have high astigmatism find Sclerals superior to soft lenses. They offer better vision, more stable vision, and better comfort. patients who require bifocals often see better with scleral lenses than soft bifocal lenses again they offer more stable and better vision and we can position the bifocal better than we can in a soft lens people who have dry eyes and have poor comfort with soft lenses can be offered better comfort and relief from their dry eyes with scleral lenses. Patients that have scars or defects on their coin again such as non-healing scratches who are in pain and discomfort can get relief by wearing scleral lenses
These New Uses for scleral are an exciting development set alarm for patients many options that just weren’t available before with the Advent of new lens designs new materials and Coatings of those materials to increase wearability and now new instruments that help us measure square is better we can fit lenses easier with better results the future has never been brighter end people are pleasantly surprised how comfortable and now a fordable they have become.
