Mold-Designed
Scleral Lenses
From EyePrintPRO, the most HIGHLY customized scleral lens in the World!
WHAT ARE MOLD-DESIGNED SCLERAL LENSES ?
The mold or impression-designed scleral lens is made completely based on a mold, or impression, of your cornea (front clear part of the eye) and sclera (white portion of the eye).
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This lens is manufactured by a small U.S. company called EyePrintPRO. It is one of a kind and the only lens in the world that is created by this method.
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These lenses are unique because unlike conventional scleral lenses, they are not limited to the "curve" design structure.
With conventional scleral lenses, the Doctor observes a lens from a lab on the eye and makes adjustments to the curves of the lens to ensure the lens fits around the eye properly, and provides good vision. These lenses usually have 4 central curves and 4 peripheral curves to choose from. Most people who are fit with scleral lenses are in a conventional lens.
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With the mold-designed scleral, there are no set number of curves. The lens is made to fit around ALL of the lumps and bumps of your eye for a better fit that is achieved faster than the trial and error of conventional lenses.
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Are mold-designed lenses more comfortable than other scleral lenses?
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Most likely, yes. Because the lens is made from a mold of your eye, the fit is more accurate than even the best conventional scleral lens. This can result in more comfort.
This is a great option for patients who feel that their current scleral lenses are not comfortable or have areas of redness they cannot get rid of after multiple lens exchanges.
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Are mold-designed scleral lenses able to give me better vision than other scleral lenses?
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There is the possibility for sharper vision with a mold-designed scleral lens versus other types of scleral lenses.
The reason for this is because with conventional scleral lenses, the optics (prescription) is in the center of the lens. Due to the shape of the eye, most lenses decenter slightly. This makes the prescription decentered over your pupil. With the mold or scan-designed scleral lens, the back of the lens is made to fit around the eye and the front of the lens actually recenters the optics back to the center of your pupil.
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In our practice, most of our patients who switch to mold-designed scleral lenses do see an improvement in vision.
Here our patient is having an impression taken for the mold-designed scleral lens. This lens is highly customized for those with mild to moderately complicated corneal issues and diseases.
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The impression process requires a blue "goo" that is inserted into the eye. No anesthesia is needed. The material is very comfortable and squishy and removed easily with no residue or irritation.
This patient's impression will be made into a scleral lens. This is the most advanced scleral lens design in the world. She requires higher customization because the lens is going to incorporate prism (to fix double vision), and multifocal optics (for distance and near vision).
She is extremely happy with her new lenses that provide comfortable, clear, singular vision all day.
This is the EyePrintPRO scleral lens made for a patient with a regular cornea. You can see that the lens incorporates many bumps. Even "normal" eyes are not perfect circles and have many irregularities that are difficult to see with the naked eye. These lenses provide the potential for more comfort than traditional contact lenses or even conventional scleral lenses.
Along with Dr. Morrison's meticulous measurements, the impression is sent to the lab where a 3-D scanner uses the mold to create a design on CAD software. Each lens is made-to-order and completely custom, taking about 30 minutes per eye to create.
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Above you can see an EyePrintPRO lens on the left that has a large bump on the edge of the lens. This is made to fit around an area that underwent a glaucoma filtering surgery.
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The eye on the right is the software rendering of an impression we took of an eye with keratoconus who had undergone something called corneal hydrops. This causes a very irregular shape to the eye.
WHAT ARE SCLERAL LENSES ?
Scleral lenses are a unique type of lens made of an oxygen-permeable rigid plastic that is filled with a sterile saline solution before being placed on the eye.
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"Contact lens" is not-applicable to this type of lens because there is no contact with the lens and the cornea (clear front of the eye). This type of lens lands on the white portion of the eye, the sclera.
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The space between the cornea and the lens is filled with saline, providing moisture to the cornea all day long, and has the ability to mask corneal irregularities, abnormal conditions, and highly diseased eyes.
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This lens essentially creates a new, more perfect, front surface of the eye. This allows for much sharper vision for those with keratoconus, corneal transplants, radial keratotomy, corneal scarring, post-LASIK ectasia, and even severe dry eye.
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HOW LONG DO SCLERAL LENSES LAST?
Scleral lenses can last for as long as: your corneal shape doesn't change, your prescription doesn't change, and the material remains unscratched. ​These lenses are very high quality and an excellent investment in clear, comfortable vision.
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Unless there is a change, we usually recommend getting a new pair every two years as well as having backup pair, especially if you have an ocular condition and rely on these lenses to see.
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WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM SCLERAL LENSES?
1.) Dry Eyes
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When traditional treatments have failed, scleral lenses can be an amazing management option for severe dry eye. There is a reservoir of preservative-free sterile saline in between your cornea and the lens which stays in place all day. This provides constant lubrication to the eye.
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In cases like Stevens-Johnson syndrome or Sjogren's Syndrome, where more than just the cornea is compromised, the lens can be made to be much larger to protect the conjunctiva (white portion of the eye) as well.
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These lenses, in combination with excellent dry eye management can provide wonderful relief to patients who have been suffering from severe dry eye.
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2.) Keratoconus
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Keratoconus is a condition where the cornea thins and bulges forward. When an eye with keratoconus sees an image, the irregular cornea bends the light rays so they are unable to reach the retina in a straight line, making images distorted and blurry. For this reason, glasses are ineffective because once the light rays go through the glasses, they still are obscured by the cornea.
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Scleral lenses are a great option to restore vision to people with keratoconus. Between the keratoconic cornea and the scleral lens, the liquid "fills in" the irregular surface to create a "new" corneal surface, where light can pass through clearly to the retina. For very advanced keratoconus, sometimes other contact lenses are difficult to fit without worrying about scarring the cornea. The scleral lens takes away this fear and allows the cornea to remain untouched.
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3.) Corneal transplants
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Corneal transplantation is a great way to restore vision to those who have extremely abnormal or scarred corneas. However, corneal transplants do introduce some irregularity to the corneal surface that may result in vision that cannot be corrected to 20/20 with glasses.
Between the irregular cornea and the scleral lens, the liquid "fills in" the irregular surface to create a "new" corneal surface, where light can pass through clearly to the retina. This allows the eye to see once again.
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4.) Radial keratotomy
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Scleral lenses can be transformative for those who have had radial keratotomy (RK) surgery. Out of all lens options, this is the ideal lens for RK patients because the liquid layer between the lens and the eye minimizes a lot of the daily visual fluctuations that these patients experience. It can also improve vision immensely by minimizing irregularities caused by the incisions on the corneal surface.
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CAN SCLERAL LENSES CORRECT MY PRESCRIPTION?
Yes! Along with helping people achieve dry eye relief and correcting irregularities, we can correct your full prescription with the lens.
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Scleral lenses can correct your glasses prescription, your astigmatism, and if you are over 40 years old and need reading glasses, your near prescription as well.
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If you are over 40 years old, you have the options below with scleral lenses:
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1.) Distance Scleral Lenses + Reading Glasses: Both eyes corrected for distance with the lenses. For reading, you may wear progressive glasses (for a full range of vision) or reading glasses (for one range of vision) over the scleral lenses when needed.
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2.) Monovision: One eye corrected for distance vision and the other eye corrected for reading or computer. The brain uses each eye independently and chooses which one to use for which task. Most people can adapt to this, some people cannot.
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3.) Multifocal scleral lenses: This is a different design of scleral lens which combines both distance vision and near vision into the same lens. This requires a different fitting procedure but can give incredible vision. Multifocal lenses do require some compromise since the lenses are accomplishing so many tasks. Nighttime vision may give slightly more halos around lights due to the design of the lens. Most people can adapt to this over time.
Q: WHAT IS THE FITTING PROCESS LIKE?
A: The fitting process starts with a Specialty Contact Lens Consultation. This consultation covers all testing necessary to determine the best option to perfect your vision. You may try on different types of lenses at this examination as well to assess your visual potential.
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If you decide to proceed with contact lenses, the lenses are ordered for you and you will return in about 1-3 weeks to try on the initial lens. This initial lens is our first chance to see how things look. If the lenses looks good you will leave with the lenses and return for a follow up visit to give us feedback on comfort and vision. We may need to alter the lens at this visit and will order lenses with different parameters.
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For specialty contact lenses, once we start the fitting process you are able to return for unlimited follow ups and lens changes for three months until we have a final product.
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VIDEO OF EYEPRINT SCLERAL LENS
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This video from the manufacturer details the process of making an EyePrintProsthetic mold-designed scleral lens
Q: LEARN ABOUT SCLERAL LENSES FROM DR. MORRISON
Learn about scleral lenses and whether they will benefit you with Dr. Caitlin Morrison and Dr. Stephanie Woo. This is a recording of a live webinar Dr. Morrison and Dr. Woo did specifically for patients! Real patients also ask questions at the end of the webinar.
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