Purpose: To assess perceived comfort and related experiences of adapted keratoconic scleral contact lens (17-18.2 mm) wearers with a history of wearing other contact lens modalities and to compare these subjective clinical effects with previous experiences.
Methods: Twenty-four keratocones were recruited, signed an informed consent approved by the University Internal Review Board, and were asked to complete a survey and a dry eye questionnaire.
Results: Previous lens wearing experience included soft, piggy back, and hybrid lenses but predominantly was corneal gas permeable. An overwhelming majority strongly preferred the comfort and vision with the scleral contact lenses. This cohort of keratoconus patients were on average dry eye suspects according to a dry eye questionnaire but contained individuals with either normal or significantly dry eye scores. However, patients stated that they experienced less dryness with their scleral lenses, but slightly more than half of these patients experienced, at least occasionally, midday fogging.
Conclusions: The scleral contact lenses are extremely well accepted by keratoconic patients because of comfort and vision these devices provide. For many patients, they offer further relief from dryness symptoms. However, midday fogging remains a limitation for many wearers.