Scleral Contact lens
The Scleral Contact lens has some great benefits that other contact lens can't compete with. It was originally developed to treat irregular astigmatism (most people have regular astigmatism) this causes them not to be able to see unless they are in some kind of specialty contact lens. This means they have to be comfortable enough to force someone who doesn't want to wear contact lenses to wear contact lenses. The lens accomplishes this by going over the whole cornea and only touching the scleral (white of your eye). What that means is the lens avoids one of the most densely packed pain receptors area in the body called the cornea and only touches the very little nerve innervated area in the scleral.
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If you have a lot or little amount of astigmatism this contact lens can hide all of your astigmatism meaning that if you have tried a soft contact lens and notice how your vision fluctuates with blinking or lack of blinking this lens can eliminate that. The traditional soft contact lens has a weight on the bottom of them and has to put extra power at a specific part of your eye where it is needed. This means in your normal contact lens the weight can move from gravity, blinking, and moving your body around. With a Scleral Contact lens, it hides all of your astigmatism, you won't have to worry about it while it's providing better vision than your traditional soft contact lens or even your glasses. If for some reason we do have to put astigmatism in your scleral lens we design the lens to fit your sclera (white parts of your eye) specifically so that it locks into place and doesn't need a weight to stabilize the lens. Trust Dr. Chappel he knows, he is one of the few people that has to put astigmatism in his scleral contact lens that he wears on a daily basis. One of the other big benefits besides providing the best vision possible period is it is the only kind of Contact Lens that is FDA approved to treat dryness. The rest of the contact lens is more likely to cause dryness than treat it.
Let's talk about how our Scleral Contact Lens at the optometry office is different from almost everyone else. Scleral Contact lens the way they are designed can help treat Higher-order aberrations (vision issues that are not fixed by glasses and normally shows themselves worst at night see the photo above-showing examples) on the front surface of the cornea which is great but there is a slight problem. We can have Higher-order aberrations on the back of our cornea, the lens in your eye, and/or even the vitreous (gel) in your eye. This is where our Scleral lens is different. They offer a way to remove the higher-order aberrations and the technology in our optometry office allows us to measure them and then remove them with our Scleral contact lens. There have been studies of these lenses being able to improve vision from 20/60 in a standard scleral contact lens all the way down to 20/25+ in the Scleral lens we use. This means this person can drive again in the state of Texas! This level of improvement is normally from diseases like Keratoconus but can still improve vision in undiseased eyes as well.
In conclusion, it is a contact lens that treats dryness and fixes higher-order aberration. These two things will provide you with the best vision you have ever experienced if you are Myopic (nearsightedness), Hyperopia (Farsightedness), and/or have astigmatism. That is why our eye doctor, Dr. Chappel, wears these lenses on a daily basis.
Orthokeratology (Ortho-K)
Ortho-K are lens are different then every other contact lens. It is the only contact lens that allows you to see when nothing is in your eye. You put the contact lens in right before bed and then sleep with the contact lens in and then take them out in the morning to see throughout the day. It reshapes your cornea (front surface of your eye) so you can see throughout the day. When you fit them on children this has added benefit of decreasing the progression of myopia (nearsightedness). When it comes to fitting these lenses there is one very important instrument that is the topographer and we have one of the best on the market with the OPD-Scan III Wavefront Aberrometer. This allows direct transmission of data to our contact lens makers which makes sure your lens is as arcuate as possible with still being HIPAA compliant.
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What makes the lens we use at our optometry clinic different is we use the highest DK/T on the market. What that means is it has the highest oxygen permeability on the market. What that does to you is decrease the risk of infection, decrease corneal edema and decrease the risks of almost all contact lens problems in general!
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Hybrid Contact lens
These lenses are little different combing two systems to make a better lens combining the image quality of standard Gas permeable (hard lens or GP) and comfort of a soft lens. They are called Hybrid contact lenses. The hybrid lens we use is called SynergEyes which is the best hybrid lens manufacturer on the market providing the amazing attachment of the soft lens to the hard lens to decrease the risk of ripping of the lens.
Hard Contacts (GP)
Our Optometry clinic has one of the best topographers to make one of the best fitting Hard Contacts (Gas Permeable GP) contact lens possible. The topographer can also send your information directly to the lens manufacture to make sure your lens is made perfectly! GP now have some ways to help with distance and near. Are you needing reading glasses, wear bifocal/progressive there are both a multifocal GP and Bifocal GP which can help with both your distance and near vision. The bifocal GP contact lens will give you the crispest distance vision possible with the crispest reading vision possible offering vision comparable to bifocal glasses!
