Once in a while, a practitioner or eye doctor will meet a patient whose vision can’t be corrected through prescription eyeglasses are contact lenses. One type of patient is called a hard-to-fit patient. A hard-to-fit patient is either due to irregular eye shape or previous damage to the eye. While a patient with mild astigmatism can wear contact lenses for astigmatism like toric lenses, these lenses only go so far.

When a hard-to-fit patient requires the next level of care, consider co-managing with Vision Support and Dry Eye Centre’s Dr. Sklapsky. We have helped countless hard-to-fit patients achieve amazing vision. Plus, these same continue to see their local optometrist for their annual eye exams.

How Do Hard-to-Fit Patients Get Clear Vision?

To find the right visual solution for a hard-to-fit patient, an eye doctor will need to analyze the eye’s surface. The latest digital imaging technology in eye care helps produce a map of the cornea. Corneal topography, which maps the cornea, can be costly and when you have a hard-to-fit patient, this can mean extra training that is too demanding for a local practice. Dr. Sklapsky at Vision Support and Dry Eye Centre in Kelowna, BC, is an experienced contact lens fitter who has access to the latest corneal topography technology at our facility. This is the first step to helping a hard-to-fit patient find clear vision.

Patients may consider their eye doctor as their prescription eyewear provider. With hard-to-fit contact lens patients, however, they rely on their local optometrist to help them restore their sight. Finding a contact lens fitter can often mean letting go of that patient from your practice. Fortunately, through co-managing a hard-to-fit patient with Vision Support and Dry Eye Centre, we’ll fit them with their custom contact lenses, while you remain as their local optometrist for their eye care needs.

Our eye doctors and staff at Vision Support and Dry Eye Centre educate every hard-to-fit patient between the difference of a regular contact lens and a customized contact lens. Specialty contact lenses like RGPs or scleral lenses are designed to help them see clearly and comfortably. Part of the co-managing process is to explain to the patient about their contact lenses and lead them back their eye care provider. This allows eye doctors the privilege of administering eyecare services for any patient who enters their doo. Much like a family doctor who sends their patient to the pharmacy for medicine, you can send your hard-to-fit contact lens patients for their contact lens fittings.

With your contact lens prescription in hand, we will help the patient through finding the right contact lenses solution for their visual needs. We’ll educate the patient behind the science of rigid gas permeable lenses or scleral lenses and their uses.

Vision Support and Dry Eye Centre carries multiple contact lens options to assist any hard-to-fit patient.

Rigid gas permeable fittings, for example, include spheric, toric, b-toric, and multifocal lenses. Rigid gas permeable lenses or RGP lenses help care for patients with keratoconus, post-graft or corneal transplants, severe or high astigmatism, and other corneal irregularities.

Alternatively, scleral lenses are a specialty lens that has become widely used for many hard-to-fit patients. Scleral lenses are extra-large diameter lenses that vault over the cornea and come to rest on your sclera (white of your eye). The cornea or center of the eye can become extremely sensitive and prevent people from wearing soft contact lenses. However, scleral lenses are fitted on the sclera, which is far less sensitive and can bring about amazing comfort. Contact lens fitters across the world utilize scleral lenses as they treat multiple conditions like severe dry eyes from Post-LASIK, chemical burns, and advanced keratoconus.

For more about RGP and scleral lens fittings, learn about our contact lens co-managing services here.