people with keratoconus know that it can be tricky to get clear
vision especially with glasses so this leaves them with contact lenses
so in this video i wanted to go over five of some of the best contact lens options
out there for people that have keratoconus or irregular astigmatism let's focus in
hey howdy everybody I'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, with a show that keeps your eyes healthy
and your vision clear and i do videos all about the eyes to help you with your eyes so make sure
you subscribe so you don't miss my future videos now let's talk about contacts for keratoconus the
number one on the list is actually regular soft contact lenses now if you have mild keratoconus
a lot of times you can actually get away with the soft contact lenses made for astigmatism
it can still be tricky because sometimes people that have keratoconus that have that cone shaped
cornea sometimes the soft contact lenses have a hard time draping over that cone and so it makes
the contact lenses a little bit unstable where the vision is unstable and it gets tricky to actually
clear that vision up for a long period of time but if you have really mild keratoconus maybe
that cone isn't quite as bad sometimes you can get away with the contact soft contact lenses
that are made for regular astigmatism but don't worry if your keratoconus is a little
bit more advanced and your vision really isn't that stable or clear with normal soft contact
lenses for astigmatism there are companies out there that make soft contact lenses specifically
for people with keratoconus it's able to drape and fit over the coned cornea a little bit better
and so it gives you more stable and clear vision now because people with keratoconus have a more
unique shaped cornea a cone-shaped cornea sometimes soft contacts won't cut it
so if you have mild moderate keratoconus then usually you're going to end up wearing rgp
lenses or rigid gas permeable hard lenses actually able to custom fit or fit the shape of the contact
lens over that cone a little bit better this gives you more stable vision and clearer vision and one
thing that's kind of tricky with hard contact lenses is they're not as comfortable as soft
contact lenses so if you're coming from wearing soft lenses and now we're gonna wear hard lenses
get ready to try and adapt to a less comfortable contact lens so for that reason usually you'll
find a lot of doctors just recommending going straight into a hard contact lens so you can
get right into adapting to a hard contact lens because if you start with a soft lens first
sometimes it can be trickier to adapt to a hard contact lens now usually what you'll
hear is with rgps (rigid gas permeable lenses) or hard contact lenses you'll get superior and
clearer vision and that's why there are a bunch of different companies a bunch of different designs
specifically made for people that have keratoconus or irregular astigmatism so your
options are actually wide open with hard lenses the third option is actually to do what's called a
piggyback lens you take the best comfort of a soft contact lens and put that on your cornea first
and then you take the superior vision with a hard contact lens and put that right on top
of the soft contact lens or piggybacks right on the soft contact lens that is helpful for people
that have a hard time adapting to the hard contact lenses because they can be uncomfortable sometimes
and so you can use the soft contact lenses for the comfort but put a hard contact lens on there
to give you better vision number four takes a piggyback lens and takes it a step further
called a hybrid lens probably the most common hybrid lens that you'll see out there is called
synergize that's where you have a hard rgp a hard contact lens center with a soft contact lens skirt
so the majority of the lens is actually touching your eye as a soft contact lens and then right
in the center that can give you this superior better vision as a hard contact lens and this
is great for a lot of patients a lot of patients love these types of lenses because they really are
comfortable they're healthier for the eye the hard lens can give them better vision but they can be
pretty pricey pretty expensive you are paying for that design that hybrid design but a lot
of people with keratoconus love it now if you're curious about the visual symptoms of keratoconus
or what the vision might look like for people that have keratoconus make sure that you check out my
other video kind of went into more detail there i'll also put a link in the description below
number five and this is probably my most favorite contact lens option for people with keratoconus
and that is scleral lenses now over the years scleral lenses have become more and more popular
more and more people know about scleral lenses but sometimes i'm surprised that a lot of people still
don't know about the benefits and the amazing vision that you can get from scleral contacts
scleral contacts are actually hard contact lenses and they're actually the biggest widest contact
lens out of all of the options in this video scleral contact lenses though give people great
vision i have so many patients that have had horrible vision from keratoconus or irregular
astigmatism have been fighting vision with glasses soft contact lenses normal rgp lenses
and then we put them in a scleral contact lens and all of a sudden they're down to 20 20 vision
or their vision is better that they've had in years and it's very fulfilling as a doctor to be
able to provide that to a patient and that's why sclera lenses makes the top of the list of one of
my most favorite contact lenses to fit the reason why scar lenses are so amazing is that it vaults
the cone or vaults the keratoconus meaning the contact lens doesn't even touch the cornea it
doesn't even touch the coned portion of the cornea it completely takes that out of the picture
in fact the sclera lens actually rests on the sclera of the eye the white part of the eye and
that's why they're called scleral lenses another benefit and you wouldn't think this would be a
benefit with scleral lenses but they are actually quite comfortable especially compared to regular
rgp lenses the reason why they're comfortable is because they're so big a lot of times they
actually fit and hide and slide underneath the eyelid and so the eyelid when it's blinking
isn't touching the edge of the contact lens and so sometimes it doesn't even know it's there sclera
lenses are also used for people that have dry eye issues one of the other benefits with scleral
lenses is because they're so big you actually fill the scleral lens bowl up with solution and
then you put it on your eye and your eye is constantly bathed in a layer of solution and
so people that have dry eyes definitely benefit from scleral lenses in fact i made a whole video
about sclera lenses and how you can treat dry eyes with it make sure you check out that video as well
if you have not heard of scleral contact lenses and you have keratoconus irregular astigmatism
maybe you've had a corneal transplant and you just want to try and achieve
better vision with a quite comfortable contact lens give scleral lenses a try and these are
just five options that are out there for people with keratoconus there are a lot of different
options a lot of in-between options semi-scleral lenses corneal scleral lenses there are many
different contact lens options out there if you have keratoconus so definitely look
into the options for you now if you have any questions about the contact lenses mentioned in
this video or about keratoconus make sure that you comment below i try my best to answer all
the questions that people ask me and thanks for watching i'm dr neal guymon, dr eyeguy focusing
on you and your eyes check out my other videos right there and i'll see you in the next video