Scleral contact lenses – Offer Comfort To Sensitive or Irregular Shaped Cornea

Scleral contact lenses are large-diameter gas permeable contact lenses. The smallest lenses are approximately 14.5 in diameter and largest can be up to 24 mm. They are specially designed to cover the entire corneal surface and rest on the sclera (white of the eye). So, because of an irregular cornea, if you have been told that you cannot wear contact lenses then the scleral contact lenses offer you a solution, they are designed to treat a variety of eye conditions. Irregular cornea problems caused by keratoconus and other corneal irregularities can be corrected by wearing scleral contact lenses that provide a smooth optical surface to correct vision.

Scleral contact lenses offer comfort to the people who could not tolerate wearing lens or suffering from severe dry eyes problems, injury to the eye, keratoconus, corneal ectasia, Stevens - Johnson syndrome, post-corneal transplant complications as well as chemical and burn injuries may also be treated by the use of these lenses. These scleral contact lenses, especially for sensitive eyes or irregularly shaped corneas, provide initial comfort similar to soft lenses.

Clarity of soft contact lenses depends on the moisture provided to your cornea and the lens by your tear system. Due to environmental factors such as computer usage, certain medications, or a dry eye condition the moisture can vary at different times, resulting into fluctuations and blurred vision that may go and comes randomly during the day. But if you wear scleral contact lenses, you won’t experience such fluctuations in vision due to the presence of tear layer that bathes the cornea and keeps it lubricated, as long as you keep wearing lenses.

Due to bigger size, scleral contact lenses do not move freely or move less in your eyes. The edges rest underneath the lid margins lending to less possibility of dislodging or coming out – this generally happens with standard gas permeable lenses.  With this less movement and visual disturbance, you can have all around better experience.

Due to size, optic zone in the scleral contact lenses are also much larger and stay centered over your pupil even at night even when the eyes dilate naturally, which in turn, leads to a crisp vision with less light reflections and starbursts.

You don’t need to have special eye conditions to wear scleral contact lenses but still, you should have a recent eye health check-ups to make sure that your eyes are healthy enough to wear scleral contact lenses. Technically anyone who has optimum vision and comfort can try contact lenses.

These lenses can be custom-painted, though most companies only sell lenses with a pre-designed look. However, the design of the scleral contact lenses provides you with a smooth and regular viewing surface.

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