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Mislead aboutt KC treatment

Posted: Sat 10 Feb 2007 12:46 am
by mic
Hi all,

Since day one I have been told by all optometrists/consultants that the hard lenses help stop the condition from worsening.

I went for my monthly appointment this week and the new lady told me that if i can still get good vision with glasses/normal soft lenses there is no need to wear hard lenses?? She said it is a common misconception that the contact lenses help the condition, but they are purely to aid vision and have no other effect in terms of reducing the chance of KC worsening?

Is this correct? Have I been misunderstanding alll this time?

She even said she is happy for me to just wear normal contacts from specsavers if i get good vision with them. I am hesitant as i do not want my KC to get worse...

Just to give you some background - I have had KC for a couple years now and have seen many optometrists. I have persistently suffered from redness when wearing contacts for longer than a couple of hours.

This has resulted in me visiting the hospital every month where they make tiny adjustments to the fitting, try new materials etc. to reduce the redness. I now have a new type of lens that is hard in the middle and has a soft skirt on the outside. This is the best so far but I still get the redness.

Posted: Sat 10 Feb 2007 12:53 am
by Sweet
Hello Mic!

Welcome to the forum!

I was always told when i was first diagnosed 16 years ago that hard lenses are needed to squash the cornea into a different shape. I think that this was the understanding then and maybe some optometrists still believe this to be the case. This is very misleading though as now it is not thought to be the case and hard lenses are used to trap fluid behind the lens to assist with vision.

It is always good to see a KC specialist to have your eyes checked regularly as they will be up to date on the latest advances and lens treatment.

A lot of people manage very well with glasses and soft lenses, and this is not thought to make the KC any worse.

Hope that helps a little. Take care and hope to see you posting again!

Posted: Sat 10 Feb 2007 1:28 am
by jayuk
Mic

It is a Myth. Hard Lenses do NOT stop KC progressing...this is something that many of the Optometrists of the 80's and early 90's subscribed to.....but there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that using Hard Lenses will halt KC.

With regards to glasses \ soft lenses? If you can get the vision you need with them.....happy days....and stick with them.....as long as there comfortable etc...

J

Posted: Sat 10 Feb 2007 2:28 pm
by Alison Fisher
I was told the exact same thing, but it was in the early 1980's. My gas permeables did nothing to stop my KC progressing. They just enabled me to see better, when I could stand to have them in that is as I didn't get on with them at all. I wonder how I would do now with all the different lenses and regimes available.

Posted: Sat 10 Feb 2007 3:15 pm
by Andrew MacLean
mic

Welcome to the forum

I think it is true that hard contact lenses do not, in any way, reduce or inhibit the progression of keratoconus. they are normally prescribed to people with ketaroconus as they provide a less elastic fromt surfact to the world, correcting the irregular curve of the cornea.

People with more advanced KC cannot normally get good correction from retular soft lenses because the cine pushes the centre of the soft lens so that it hugs to the contour of the eye and gives no useful correction.

As I understand it, in Scotland at least, it is very unusual (if not completely unknown) for hard lenses to be prescribed if soft ones or glasses will provide good correction.

Andrew

Posted: Sat 10 Feb 2007 8:54 pm
by GarethB
Hi Mic,

Welcome to the forum.

From day 1 I was told that the lenses help KC beacuse they restore the curvature of the cornea. This was always followed up by being told it is not a cure, it may get worse or it may stabalise.

It is true contact lenses help the condition; in that in a majority of cases contact lenses give us full vision with little to no problems.

It is wrong to say any treatment for KC stops the condition. The closes to that we have is C3R where many studies have shown that it has stabilised and in some regressed. They do stop short of saying it stops the condition or cures it because even they do not know the long term prospects for those who are treated.

Had KC for 20 years now, but what I was told then was grafts were a cure.

At the moment all KC treatment can only be considerd as a management of the condition.

If your KC is mild enough to be able to cope perfectly well with glasses or soft lenses go for it. Even for the more sever cases of KC there are soft lenses just for us.

There are all sorts of contact lenses out there to help us and the surgical treatments to manage the condition are increasing too.

regards

Gareth

Posted: Sun 11 Feb 2007 12:24 pm
by Lynn White
Mic

As an optom, I confirm what others say here. RGP's do not stop the condition from worsening. It was once thought that it did because the lenses remoulded the conical shape into something more "normal". Its rather like practice of "orthokeratology" which had a brief resugance of popularity recently. This involved fitting progressively flatter lenses to an eye to change the shape of the cornea with a result that the vision is improved. This is not a cure, as if you stop wearing the lenses altogther, the cornea merely goes back to its original shape!

So yes, if you can get good vision with a soft lens then that is fine.

Lynn