Annette is a travel nurse from Gastonia, NC and came to Complete Eye Care in Belmont, NC for an eye exam. Annette wore glasses and could only correct to 20/100- with her glasses. She stated that she struggled to see while driving and could not drive at night at all due to issues with glare and reflections. She could not see clearly in the grocery store and struggled in seminars to see the speaker and projection screen clearly.
Annette was found to have Keratoconus which is an eye disease of the cornea. It causes progressive steepening of the cornea which results in irregular astigmatism. This irregular astigmatism is not able to be corrected with glasses. The treatment for Keratoconus has been a hard contact lens but many people such as Annette could not tolerate the discomfort of a hard lens.
Scleral contact lenses have been used to treat Keratoconus recently because they give all the benefits of a hard contact lens such as clear, comfortable vision with the comfort of a soft lens. Scleral lenses can be Wavefront designed so they fit perfectly on the eye and safely vault over the cornea. Since Keratoconus causes a steeping of the cornea, it is important that scleral lenses are fit which precise design.
Dr. Barbara Marcussen at Complete Eye Care is a certified Wave designer who designs scleral contact lenses based on a topography reading of 11,000 points on the cornea. The scleral lens can then be designed precisely to vault over the cornea so it is safe for people with Keratoconus. An OCT image map is then used to show the precise amount of clearance over the cornea and how well the lens vaults over the cornea and how it leaned gently onto the conjunctiva.
When Annette put on her scleral contact lenses for the first time and saw 20/25, she immediately called her mother from the Complete Eye Care office and started crying, telling her mother how clear she could finally see!
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