Scleral Contact Lenses
Have you been told that you cannot wear contact lenses? Have you had problems with regular contacts in the past? If the answer to either of those questions is yes, do not rule out contacts just yet. Scleral Contact Lenses may be the answer. The talented staff at Southwest Eye Care in Bakersfield can help you to discover if this innovative vision solution is right for you. Read on to learn more about Scleral lenses.
What Are Scleral Lenses?
Scleral lenses are oversized gas-permeable lenses, often called hard contacts, that are designed to rest on the sclera. The sclera is the white part of the eye. They are designed specifically for patients who have eye issues that cannot be corrected with traditional lenses and those who have a hard time wearing contact lenses.
There are categories of the scleral lens that are based on where the lenses make primary contact with the eye and size of the lens. The three categories of the scleral lens are semi-scleral lenses, mini-scleral lenses, and full scleral lenses.
Semi-scleral lenses, also known as corneoscleral lenses, are the smallest of these oversized lenses. They rest roughly at the junction between the sclera and the cornea.
Mini-scleral lenses are slightly larger than semi-scleral lenses, vaulting over the entire surface of the cornea and coming to rest on the sclera. Full scleral lenses, the largest variety, also covers the entire cornea coming to rest on the sclera. The main difference between these two categories is the amount of clearance between the cornea and the back surface of the lens.
Today’s scleral lenses are constructed with rigid gas permeable materials that are highly breathable. This ensures that plenty of oxygen reaches the front surface of your eye even though the lens covers the entire cornea. This makes the contacts more comfortable and keeps the eye itself oxygenated and healthy.
Their size makes scleral lenses more stable and less likely to accidentally dislodge than traditional contact lenses. That stability can also make them more comfortable to wear.
Conditions Scleral Lenses Help
Scleral lenses can help anyone who is interested in seeing the world clearly. However, these lenses were designed to provide vision help to those with special conditions and circumstances that make standard gas-permeable or soft lenses impractical. Among the particular conditions scleral lenses were designed to help are:
- Severe dry eye syndrome
- Keratoconus
- Post-RK surgery
- Corneal ectasia or irregularity from LASIK surgery
- Scarred or irregular corneas
- Irregular or extreme astigmatism