One unfortunate side effect of wearing scleral contact lenses that are larger than 18mm is the accumulation of debris underneath the lens after 4-5 hours of wear that causes a patient’s vision to become cloudy. This does not affect everyone, but according to a study done by Visser, et al. about 50% of patients will have to remove their len(s) midday to rinse and refill them. The picture on the left is a cross-section of the liquid reservoir on a patient’s eye that has a significant build up of debris. The picture on the right shows the lens after being rinsed and reapplied with fresh solution. For most patients who have this problem, this is a insignificant issue they easily deal with in order to gain all the benefits scleral lenses provide. Using a more viscous artificial tear drop to fill the lenses before insertion may slow this process down.
A dedicated clinic for managing anterior surface disease with the use of scleral contact lenses.