The Wavefront Scleral Lens

Most patients who have suffered vision loss due to keratoconus, refractive eye surgery (LASIK, Radial Keratotomy, PRK, etc.) and many other corneal conditions and diseases, experience a variety of vision distortions known as “higher order aberrations” or “HOA’s). Higher Order Aberrations are complex vision disorders responsible for the perception of ghosting, double vision, glare, loss of contrast, starbursts and halos. When patients require a scleral lens, it is these usually these conditions that they find most bothersome.

Measurement of higher order aberrations cannot be done simply by scanning the surface of the eye. Moreover, while some patients find a measure of relief from a “classical scleral lens,” others continue to report significant problems with their vision. Sometimes the problem lies with the posterior cornea, sometimes with the natural lens of the eye, or with an intraocular lens, or elsewhere in the visual system. Research scientists and eye doctors around the world have been working to address these crippling and life altering vision distortions. The instrument seen in the photo below is an aberrometer. The measurements that it provides are known as “aberrometry”.

In order to identify and measure these aberrations, the Ovitz XWAVE aberrometry system seen below is used to send a light into the eye. This light passes through the cornea and the lens and is reflected back from the retina. Distortions in the reflected light are then identified and measured by the XWAVE aberrometry system. Finally, these aberrations (HOA’s) are displayed in 3D on the aberrometer’s computer screen. How light passes through the eye is known as “wavefront” technology. The resulting aberration profile is uploaded to a special laboratory that embeds this information into the optics of a scleral lens so that these HOA’s can be eliminated and the patient’s vision improved. The ARES HOA correcting scleral lens coupled with the XWAVE aberrometry system is the world’s first accessible HOA correcting technology. The great majority of patients who we have used this technology on have experienced significant vision improvement.