Glasses for Keratoconus

One of the biggest myths is that patients with keratoconus can't wear glasses.

For many patients with mild or medium level keratoconus, it is in fact completely achievable to create a pair of glasses to be useful in certain situations. 

The realities of keratoconus are that custom contact lenses will always give clearer vision than glasses. However it can be very beneficial for keratoconus patients to also have a pair of glasses made, even if the level of vision with the glasses isn't quite as clear as it is with contact lenses. 

Unfortunately, many optometry practices and optical groups lack the expertise and technology to successfully create spectacle lenses for patients with keratoconus.

We find that patients with keratoconus benefit from having glasses in situations such as:

• At night watching TV

• Getting up during the night for children, noises, alarms, toilet etc

• When eyes are irritated or they have conjunctivitis

• On aircraft when planing to sleep on-board

• Carrying as a spare form of vision correction when travelling

How do we create the best possible glasses for patients with keratoconus?

We utilise corneal topography (3D corneal shape analysis), aberrometry (light waveform blur analysis) and complex lens design software such as SHAW lens to frequently make glasses for our keratoconus patients. Unfortunately, we are not able to make keratoconus specific glasses without an in-person examination. If you are located outside of Australia, we recommend you contact shawlens.com to see if there are any local practitioners who specialise in this type of spectacle lens.

In summary, with the right expertise and tools, glasses are possible for many keratoconus patients and although they typically aren't quite as clear as custom contact lenses, they are often very useful to have as a secondary form of vision correction.