People with Keratoconus often feel frustrated and disheartened because of their vision. Older style contact lenses don’t quite work right for anything but mild Keratoconus, and the new Scleral Lenses won’t do all they can do for a patient unless they are prescribed, designed and fitted properly. It’s our goal here at the California Keratoconus Center to design lenses that help our patients almost forget that they even have Keratoconus so they can live a normal life. Our Advanced Technology for Non-Surgical Keratoconus Treatment is one of the keys to changing the lives of so many of our patients.

Advanced Technology for Non-Surgical Keratoconus Treatment

Keratoconus is an eye condition that results in a thinning and bulging cornea. In most cases, this thin and weak cornea shouldn’t be surgically altered because such surgery has historically shown to further weaken the cornea. In fact, Radial Keratotomy used to be an accepted surgical treatment for Keratoconus, but these days we have treated many patients for Post-RK (and Post-LASIK) Ectasia whose vision had become progressively worse because of the surgery. It’s because of these reasons and many others that we recommend non-surgical Keratoconus Treatment whenever possible.

And here are the instruments and techniques we use to achieve amazing vision for our patients.

Marco OPD III

Our Marco OPD III gives us a wealth of information to help us design great lenses for our patients. We can see the topography of the cornea: how the cornea is shaped, is it tilted one way or another, where it is high, and where it is low. But one of the most exciting things about this instrument is that it can show us the wavefront optics.

For many Keratoconus patients, they see glare, halos, rings and other high order aberrations that can interfere with day to day activities, such as seeing or driving at night. The Marco OPD III allows us to actually measure these high order aberrations at their precise locations on the eye and design corrections for those aberrations right into the lens. When patients wear lenses designed with the help of the OPD III, the aberrations often seem to immediately disappear, allowing the patient to resume a normal lifestyle. This wavefront technology, combined with our other Advanced Technology, are combined in brand new cutting edge techniques practiced here, and by very few other Optometrists or Ophthalmologists in the USA.

Eaglet Eye Surface Profiler

The center point of our Advanced Technology for Non Surgical Keratoconus Treatment is the Eaglet Eye Surface Profiler. The California Keratoconus Center has one of only 70 of these Eaglets in the world, and among only 35 in the entire USA. It not only measures the complete cornea, but it measures almost all of the Sclera as well, up to 20mm. This gives us a 3d image of the shape of the eye with a precision of up to 350,000 points — about triple the precision of what older equipment can measure.

With this data, we can design a contact lens that perfectly matches the shape of the eye, resulting in the most comfortable contact lens ever. And it’s because of the combination of the precision shape we get from the Eaglet with the wavefront optics from the OPD III that results in the clearest vision with the lowest aberrations possible.

Zeiss OCT

Once we receive the custom designed contact lens back from the lab, we will put it on your eye and then look at it not only with our high powered microscope, but with our Zeiss OCT. Never before have we been able to scan right through a lens on the eye over 360 degrees around the eye and see a 3d image at any angle, and any meridian. We’re able to watch how the back of that new lens follows the contour of the unusual cornea.

We can actually measure how well a new contact lens fits on the eye down to 1 micron. If something is not quite right, then we’ll know it, even if the patient doesn’t perceive it.

Comfortable Clear Vision With Keratoconus

But the great news is that more often than not, things are just about perfect. We have a 52% First Fit Success rate — as high as it has ever been — as a result of our advanced technology for non-surgical Keratoconus treatment and the techniques that we have designed to use it. In the past, fitting Keratoconus contact lenses was often a hit or miss endeavor, sometimes resulting in 5 or more different pairs of lenses, and 5 or more appointments in our office. Now, more than half of our patients leave after their first visit with perfectly designed and fitting lenses. And our second fittings have an 85% success rate.

Not only is it our advanced technology and techniques that makes this possible, but it’s our training and expertise as well. We use this advanced technology here to treat our patients, but we also teach other eye doctors how to effectively use some of these instruments to help them treat their own patients better. We also collaborate on caring for patients when another eye doctor’s specialty is something other than Keratoconus.

If you have Keratoconus and would finally like to see clearly, comfortably and quickly, make an appointment here at the California Keratoconus Center. Our staff, led by Dr. Barry Leonard, are experts in diagnosing and treating Keratoconus. Make an appointment online today, or call us at 818-891-6711.