How Long Until Scleral Lenses Feel Comfortable?

If you are transitioning to scleral lenses, you are likely wondering how long it will take for your eyes to adjust and when the lenses will finally feel comfortable. With traditional contact lenses, patients often expect a grueling adaptation period spanning weeks of irritation, watering eyes, and strictly rationed wear time.

Fortunately, scleral lenses completely rewrite the rules of contact lens comfort.

Instant Comfort From Day One

The most surprising fact for new patients is that there is virtually no physical adaptation period required. Unlike traditional rigid gas permeable (RGP) or old-fashioned hard lenses, scleral lenses feel comfortable immediately upon insertion.

In fact, the comfort is so absolute that you can wear them for a full day, from day one. To truly appreciate this level of comfort, consider this: a patient could wear a scleral lens in only one eye and feel absolutely no difference in sensation between the eye with the lens and the eye without it.

Navigating Environmental Dryness

While the lenses themselves are instantly comfortable, external factors like the time of year and your local climate can occasionally play a role in how your eyes feel. For example, in regional climates like the Highveld during the dry, rainless season, some initial environmental dryness can occur.

Fortunately, this seasonal dryness does not affect most patients severely enough to warrant intensive clinical treatment. Scleral lenses naturally combat dryness because their design inherently traps a continuous layer of protective tears between the lens and your cornea. For the minority of patients who do experience minor seasonal symptoms, the condition is easily managed on a case-by-case basis using a couple of simple, gentle remedies:

• Applying preservative-free lubricating drops.
• Using warm compresses to soothe the eyelids.

The Ultimate Proof of Comfort

The fear that a large lens will hurt or feel heavy over time is a common psychological hurdle, but it is entirely unfounded. When a scleral lens is properly fitted, there is simply no pain or ongoing awareness of the lens.

In fact, some patients who have previously endured traditional hard lenses have inserted their new scleral lenses and immediately forgotten they were even there. They have actually spent the next ten minutes frantically searching around the room for their lenses, entirely unaware that the lenses were already safely in their eyes, delivering clear vision. That is the ultimate testament to just how comfortable and life-changing scleral lenses really are.

At Paul Moldovanos Optometrist in Roodepoort, we help the wider community and even nationwide and beyond, with scleral lenses – get in touch to find out more.