Scleral lenses vs normal contact lenses

[HelenH]

Hello

I have chronic dry eye (GVHD) from a bone marrow transplant. I've tried everything over the years and at the moment I am just managing with "bandage" lenses and lots of PolyGel eye drops. By "bandage" lenses I mean I am using normal contact lenses with no prescription to protect my cornea.

I am interested in finding out more about the scleral lenses as I believe these are a much bigger lens (standard contact lens is about 14mm) I'm thinking the larger scleral lens will help with the terrible redness I get on the whites of my eyes, and the extreme sensitivity I have to air conditioning and dry windy days.

Is there anyone out there that was wearing "bandage" lenses and now wearing Scleral lenses? Have you found them better?

I live in Australia and have heard about the Boston PROSE lenses and I believe we can get Scleral lenses here in Australia so I would also be very interested to hear from anyone in Australia who has either of these lenses?

[icycarol]

Hi ! I don't have experience of bandage lens. After having severe dry eye I can't wear contact lens any more, they become very dry and irritate quickly. I recently got my scleral lens and I am very happy with it, mine are 15.8MM from a brand called MSD.
They also have larger size I think it is 18.2MM. Another brand is called Jupiter, maybe you can write email to these two company to ask if they have any distributor is Australia.

Carol

[saralynn143]

I wrote a weblog entry about my experience with a scleral lens. At the end I listed every scleral I could find with a web link. Hope it helps you.
http://www.sarahartman.com/the-eyes-have-it/

[peter56]

Hi Helen,
the GVHD reaction does induce a severe destructive inflammation into the lacrimal glands - aqueous tears as well as into the meibomian glands.
In GVHD dry eyes, the large Diameter soft lenses will protect the corneas from the mechanical irritations.
But the patients have to apply artif tears every 15-20 min!
Large Diameter up to 22mm prescription soft lenses are available from WUK-Vision in the UK for example.
Other such lenses are from Soflens-Israel, the Contur lens from CA etc.
Much better suited are sclerals for GVHD patients. Bostonsight has published two studies on sclerals for GVHD.
I think these 2 articles are available for free in the net.
The first scleral was developed by a man Himmler in Germany in the 30s.
In the early 80s Donald Ezekiel in Perth has developed a real new kind of sclerals using new materials.
So Donald Ezekiel is the father of the modern sclerals lenses.

http://www.ezekieleyes.com

http://www.gelflex.com
So I think there is no need for you looking for sclerals in the USA. The Gelflex sclerals are also available in the USA.

Peter

[Rebecca Petris]

I hope our AUSTRALIAN members with sclerals or PROSE will post. I haven't personally known many people over the years with success in sclerals for dry eye in Australia though I do know a few PROSE users there.

[HelenH]

Hi Carol

Thank you so much for your reply, very useful information, I will contact both these companies and see if they distribute in Australia. I've had some good response and I think I might be able to get some scleral lenses in Australia which is great news.

Helen

[HelenH]

Hi Sarah

Thanks so much for your reply, your blog was very useful, thanks for sharing that with me. The list of all the brands is extremely useful.

Helen

[HelenH]

Hi Rebecca

Yes Ive had quite a few people here in Australia contact me which is great! I'm now in the process of going through everything and continuing to research whats going to be the best option/s for me. I wanted to thank you for starting this forum, it's been so useful and so good to know I'm not the only one going through this :-)

Helen

[DCRdryeye]

Helen I couldn't receive your message due to my in box being too full. I must delete a few message. May I ask what state you live in?

[HelenH]

Hi

I live in Sydney, NSW.

Helen

[soaps]

The Sydney eye practice have.sclerals i believe. fitted by optometrist. i have never used them as my optho said not good for me.
they did order some moisture chambers for me to trial so they seemed willing to help. however there r negative reviews online but not regarding scleral.
Hope this helps.

[DCRdryeye]

Helen, my colleague and I have contacted every eye doctor in Australia (THOUSANDS), we know who specializes in dry eye, who is interested in it and who fit slerals. Go to site our site - http://http://australiandryeye.webs.com/ then got to "Find a Doc", and locate:

Dr Jim Kokkinakis
The Eye Practice
Mezzanine Level
44 Market Street. Sydney
(02) 9290 1899

He was the most impressive. We communicate with him regularly to spread the news about better dry eye care in Australia. He has the most sophisticated equipment and will do all he can to get you a pair of sclerals that fit well

Your are lucky, I'm in VIC..too far for ongoing tweeks to the sclerals.

[Roland]

I recommended the same practitioner too