Keratoplasty
Commonly referred to as a corneal transplant, the term keratoplasty applies when all or part of a damaged or diseased cornea is removed and replaced with a donor cornea.
Following the surgery, the repaired cornea often needs quite a complex lens design to restore workable vision. There are many options available from the speciality lens industry, from traditional gas permeable lenses to soft silicone hydrogels, scleral and hybrid lenses.
Speciality contact lens solutions
This gentle movement allows tears to flow around the lens and carry waste products away from under the lens. The lenses are highly polished and generally provide very good vision. Initially, you feel the edges of the lens under your eyelids as you blink, and so they may feel a little like an eyelash when you first wear them. This awareness disappears gradually though, as you gradually build up wearing time across several days. Within a week or so, most wearers can keep their lenses in all day in comfort. Gas permeable lenses generally provide better vision than softer counterparts and generally last longer and are cheaper to maintain, but new wearers need to be prepared to build up wearing time.
Gas permeable lenses are custom made by skilled practitioners and lens manufacturers, and can be designed to meet even the most complex prescriptions or eye shapes.
Where to get treatment
Speciality lens manufacturers are not just skilled at producing contact lenses tailored to your needs, but they often also have considerable experience in choosing the best lens materials to suit a specific condition. Consequently, they’ll always work closely with specialist eye practitioners.
Find the best specialist to treat your eye condition by contacting your local lens manufacturer.
Find your local lens manufacturer
They are mainly used where the cornea is distorted and a soft lens cannot provide a satisfactory level of vision, or the wearer can’t tolerate a regular GP lens. They are easier to handle than a scleral lens, but are less successful for people suffering from dry-eye.
Where to get treatment
Speciality lens manufacturers are not just skilled at producing contact lenses tailored to your needs, but they often also have considerable experience in choosing the best lens materials to suit a specific condition. Consequently, they’ll always work closely with specialist eye practitioners.
Find the best specialist to treat your eye condition by contacting your local lens manufacturer.
Find your local lens manufacturerSoft & Silicone hydrogel
Soft lenses are made from a plastic that absorbs water and, in so doing, becomes soft and pliable. By their very nature, soft lenses are initially more comfortable than gas permeable (also known as GP) lenses. They’re larger than the cornea, and overlap onto the white part of the eye by a millimetre or so.
The softness of the lens means that it will wrap around any distortion in the shape of the cornea. This means that even small amounts of astigmatism may show through the lens and cause a reduction in vision. Larger amounts of astigmatism may require a special type of lens, called a toric, in order to overcome this effect.
Soft lenses used to be made mainly of hydrogel materials, but increasingly they are made using silicone hydrogel materials, which permit more oxygen to reach the cornea through the lens.
Generally, soft lenses require more care in handling than their GP counterparts and, for that reason, moulded lenses are available in a disposable format for more frequent (including daily) disposal.
More specialised soft lenses, in both hydrogel and silicone hydrogel materials, can be custom-made for eyes that fall outside the usual range of sizes and shapes, or where the shape of the eye has been distorted through injury or keratoconus.
Where to get treatment
Speciality lens manufacturers are not just skilled at producing contact lenses tailored to your needs, but they often also have considerable experience in choosing the best lens materials to suit a specific condition. Consequently, they’ll always work closely with specialist eye practitioners.
Find the best specialist to treat your eye condition by contacting your local lens manufacturer.
Find your local lens manufacturer
They are also extremely useful for correcting irregularly-shaped cornea caused by keratoconus, injury or corneal grafts. The bowl of the lens is filled with saline or lubricating drops prior to insertion, and so the scleral lens can also provide effective relief if you suffer from dry eyes. Increasingly, scleral lenses are being used for specialist activities, such as skiing and water sports, where the risk of loss or contamination make other forms of contact lens unsuitable.
Where to get treatment
Speciality lens manufacturers are not just skilled at producing contact lenses tailored to your needs, but they often also have considerable experience in choosing the best lens materials to suit a specific condition. Consequently, they’ll always work closely with specialist eye practitioners.
Find the best specialist to treat your eye condition by contacting your local lens manufacturer.
Find your local lens manufacturer
