Have you been diagnosed with keratoconus and are looking for treatments to prevent your vision from worsening? Corneal cross-linking may be an excellent option for you.
It is a procedure that involves strengthening the corneal tissue in your eye to prevent it from bulging. This can help stabilize your vision and stop the condition from progressing.
However, you may be wondering about other treatments for keratoconus and how to know which one is right for you. Keep reading to learn more about whether corneal cross-linking is the best surgery for keratoconus.
What is Keratoconus?
Keratoconus is a progressive eye condition that occurs most often in children, teens, and young adults and can cause significant visual impairment. It causes the cornea to bulge into a cone-like shape, which can distort your vision and make it difficult to see clearly.
Common symptoms of keratoconus also include:
- Blurry vision
- Red, swollen eyes
- Heightened sensitivity to light
- Double vision out of one eye
- Noticing more halos and glare around bright lights
- Difficulty wearing contact lenses
- Needing frequent prescription changes
- Increased nearsightedness and astigmatism
Keratoconus symptoms typically start slow and worsen over time. This progression cannot be reversed, but corneal cross-linking can stop the condition from worsening and help preserve your vision.
How Does Corneal Cross-Linking Work?
Corneal cross-linking is a minimally invasive procedure that can help slow or stop vision changes in patients with keratoconus. The structure of your cornea is maintained by bonds created between collagen fibers.
Corneal cross-linking works by stimulating these collagen fibers to make more bonds through photochemical reactions. This stiffens your corneal tissue, preventing it from bulging and distorting your vision further.
To begin the procedure, your eye doctor at Herschel LASIK and Cataract Institute will apply numbing drops to your eyes. Then, they will remove the epithelium or the outer layer of the cornea.
Your eye surgeon will place riboflavin (vitamin B2) drops into your eyes and allow them to sit for 30 minutes. The riboflavin acts as a photosynthesizer as your eye surgeon applies targeted UV light to the cornea, producing the photochemical reaction that promotes collagen bonding.
Your procedure will likely take about one hour, and then you can go home to recover. Your eye surgeon will place a special contact lens and bandage on your eye to protect it while it heals.
In most patients, the epithelium regrows in about a week, and it can take two to three months for vision to stabilize fully.
Will Corneal Cross-Linking Help My Vision?
Corneal cross-linking can fortify the cornea and stop the progression of keratoconus, keeping your vision from getting worse. However, it is not a vision correction procedure.
Some patients may notice slight improvements in their vision, but it is mainly performed to prevent further vision changes in patients with keratoconus. This can have significant benefits, including greater visual freedom and a lower chance of needing more invasive treatments like a corneal transplant.
What Other Treatments are Available for Keratoconus?
While corneal cross-linking is an effective treatment for keratoconus, whether it’s the best treatment for you will depend on your eye health, vision goals, and how far the condition has progressed. Your eye doctor at Herschel LASIK and Cataract Institute may recommend other treatments, including:
Specialty Contact Lenses
As keratoconus progresses, you may find that glasses aren’t enough to correct your vision due to severe astigmatism caused by a misshapen cornea. Contact lenses are often prescribed instead to help improve your vision.
However, many patients with keratoconus have difficulty wearing standard contact lenses due to the shape of their cornea. Herschel LASIK and Cataract Institute offers specialty contacts, including custom soft lenses made to fit your eyes, rigid gas-permeable lenses, and scleral hybrid contacts.
These can make your vision clearer and correct refractive errors. However, unlike corneal cross-linking, these visual aids cannot stop the progression of keratoconus.
Intacs Corneal Implants
Intacs corneal implants are tiny rings that can be placed in the eye to change the shape of the cornea. This can help your vision by correcting the cone-like shape caused by keratoconus.
The implants cannot be felt in the eye, are not visible, and don’t require any maintenance. They can also make it easier to fit you with contact lenses.
Topography-Guided PRK
Topography-guided PRK is a vision correction procedure guided by topographical technology that can help correct refractive errors in patients with keratoconus. Typically, you cannot undergo LASIK, PRK, or other vision correction procedures if you have keratoconus.
With the creation of a topography map of the cornea, PRK is made more precise with thousands of data points, allowing for a highly customized procedure. It is even more effective when combined with other keratoconus treatments like corneal cross-linking.
Conductive Keratoplasty
Conductive keratoplasty is a procedure that utilizes high-frequency radio waves to shrink the corneal tissue in certain areas. This reshapes the cornea and can help correct your vision.
It is important to note that while many treatments can improve your vision with keratoconus, corneal cross-linking is the only treatment that can stop the condition from progressing further. This makes it an excellent option for patients looking to preserve their vision through a minimally invasive, effective procedure.
Do you want to discover whether corneal cross-linking could be right for you? Schedule an appointment at Herschel LASIK and Cataract Institute in Orlando, FL, today!
