Corneal Thickness Changes with Scleral Contact Lenses

The purpose of this study is to investigate changes in the corneal thickness of scleral contact lens wearers in a keratoconic (KC) population and compare to age-matched controls. The hypothesis is that scleral contact lens wear is associated with low levels of corneal hypoxia including measurable changes in corneal thickness. Corneal thickness will be altered post scleral lens wear compared to pre-lens wear and the amount of alteration will correlate to the fitting characteristics in the central zone of the scleral lenses. We propose to take a sample of keratoconic and control participants, fit them in scleral lenses, and to measure topographic corneal thickness after 8-10 hours of scleral lens wear after two weeks of wear, to compare two instruments in the measurement of corneal thickness, and to compare the effects of varying central corneal clearance of the scleral lens on corneal thickness.