A Guide to Keratoconus Provided by an Optometrist in Colorado Springs, Colorado
It's possible your vision difficulties are a condition known as keratoconus. According to the Corneal Research Foundation of America, about 50 to 200 out of every 100,000 people have this condition. Although it's not common, it causes vision impairments as it progresses. At Alpine Vision, serving Colorado Springs and the nearby region, our optometry specialist can diagnose and prescribe the proper vision correction.
General Information about Keratoconus
Keratoconus affects your cornea and causes it to thin. The thinning of this clear portion of your eye leads to your eye-bulging outward. Usually, the condition begins when people are between the ages of 10 to 25. It then progresses for the next ten years or possibly longer.
It causes you to have blurred or distorted vision. You might notice you have a sensitivity to light or glare. This makes it difficult for you to drive at night. You might notice your prescription for contacts or glasses changes frequently.
How an Optometrist Diagnoses Keratoconus
We may perform an eye refraction test, which uses a device that evaluates you for vision problems. You look through different lenses and read the letters you see. The results help our optometry practitioner to determine if you have any vision deficits. Our optometrist will evaluate you for astigmatism by asking you to look at different images. You inform our eye doctor which one appears clearer.
We might perform a keratometry test, which evaluates the shape of your cornea. Additionally, part of the diagnostic process could consist of computerized corneal mapping that captures images of your cornea.
You receive the proper eyewear to correct your vision since surgery is only recommended for patients who have severely thin corneas. In the earlier stages, we can correct your vision using contacts or glasses. As it progresses, we may recommend you wear gas-permeable lenses. These still allow your eyes to receive oxygen, but they aren't as flexible. It's also possible our optometrist will prescribe more than one lens in each eye if you're having difficulties adapting to harder lenses. Wearing two contacts in one eye is known as piggybacking, which is when our optometrist recommends you wearing a soft contact underneath of the harder lens. Hybrid lenses are also effective for patients with keratoconus. They have a rigid center, but they're softer on the outside. The final option for corrective eyewear is scleral lenses, which are lenses that position on the white part of your eyes and don't' touch your cornea.