Keratoconus Doctors

California Keratoconus Center — the Keratoconus Specialists in San Fernando Valley

The Director of the California Keratoconus Center, Dr. Barry Leonard, is an Optometrist with over 35 years of experience treating patients for almost every eye disease or condition. But Keratoconus is a rare and difficult-to-diagnose eye condition requiring special training to diagnose and treat. Finding the right Keratoconus doctor is your first step in seeing clearly.

Also — and this is unique among Keratoconus specialists — Dr. Leonard is a Keratoconus patient himself, so he understands your condition from your perspective far better than other eye doctors can. Since being diagnosed with the disease in  1985, he has built, staffed, and equipped one of the premier Keratoconus treatment centers in the world.

What is Keratoconus?

Keratoconus is a condition where the cornea thins, bulges and becomes cone-shaped. So rather than the normal rounding of the cornea — or the too-flat or too-pointy rounding of the cornea associated with near-sightedness or far-sightedness, Keratoconus is a condition where the cornea almost develops angled sides leading up to a central point. (For more info, read “What is Keratoconus?“)

As a result, the normal treatments you would receive for poor vision — such as contact lenses or prescription glasses — won’t work. In the case of contact lenses, the lens cannot rest smoothly on the cornea (Imagine an upside-down teacup with the saucer placed on top of it…it just doesn’t fit right).

And glasses cannot be made to always keep in focus no matter which direction the eye is pointed. The point of the corneal cone will continually be pointing in different directions, and glasses cannot be made to follow along with the direction of your eyes to stay in focus.

In other words, it’s difficult to treat Keratoconus.

“THE Keratoconus Doctor”

But Dr. Barry Leonard, the Director of the California Keratoconus Center, is a specialist in the diagnosis of Keratoconus and in treating patients with Keratoconus. That’s because he has been trained to fit and prescribe custom contact lenses for Keratoconus and has treated over 1,800 Keratoconus patients over the past 35 years.

During this time, he has assembled a team of the finest Keratoconus specialists, and together, they have pioneered many advances in treating this debilitating disease.

Your Keratoconus can be treated with several different types of contact lenses.

• Hybrid Contact Lenses have all the benefits of a rigid gas-permeable contact lens, plus the comfort of a typical soft contact lens.
• Rigid Gas Permeable lenses (RPG) don’t mold themselves over your cornea like a soft lens. Instead, they hold their shape and keep a layer of tears between themselves and your cornea to help correct your vision. But RGP lenses can’t always remain positioned properly on a cone-shaped cornea.
• Scleral contact lenses are also an option — and often your best option. That’s because they can be custom-made to fit your unusually shaped corneas and cover your eyes all the way out to the whites of your eyes.

And yes, there are surgical Keratoconus treatments, too.

But the right treatment for you is a personal decision — one that you need to arrive at with the help of an expert Keratoconus doctor.

Do you have Keratoconus? Then call the California Keratoconus Center at 818-891-6711. Or, make an appointment online by using the link at the top-left of this page.