NEW ORLEANS -- The latest technology has made its way into the eye doctor's office, and now people who could not wear contact lenses before, can use them to see better than with glasses, even people with serious medical conditions.
Kwame Donate has always needed glasses. He says as a child he was teased for wearing them.
"Absolutely, you know, yeah, I was in elementary school with glasses and then when you would fight your glasses would break," he said with a laugh.
Even with his glasses and sitting in the front row in class, the chalk board was still not clear. Later in life, he tried soft contact lenses but that was a failure too.
"In my early 20s I tried contact lenses, soft lenses, but the problem is I'll be driving and all of a sudden, they'll fall out. So I'm like, 'Okay, now I need to try to make it to the shoulder to find my contact lenses,'" Donate said.
As it turned out, Donate has a medical condition called keratoconus, a thinning of the cornea that causes it to bulge or balloon out like an egg in the sidewall of a tire. It affects about one in 1,000 people and is usually acquired during the late teens or early 20s. But it can also happen after a common surgery.
"People can also get corneal extasia from refractive surgeries. So some patients who have had Lasik surgery or RK surgery sometimes, unfortunately a patient will develop a condition," said Dr. Timothy Leach, an optometrist with St. Charles Vision.
But what's helping Donate see in a whole new light is the latest technology, a contact lens called the SynergEyes ClearKone that came out earlier this year.
"My vision is much better with the contact lenses compared to the glasses. These contact lenses is almost like high definition, literally. I mean, you can see the difference in colors," said Donate.
"The SynergEyes lens allows us to customize the lens and blend all the curves into one lens and make it fit snugly, like a glove on a hand," said Dr. Leach. "What makes SynergEyes so wonderful is they have blended the technologies (of soft and hard lenses) and it really offers the best of both worlds. It's truly a revolutionary product."
Here's how they work: They are completely custom made to fit every little bend, roll, peak and valley of your particular eye. A map of your eyeball is taken on a topography machine. Then you try different demo lenses. Your eye map is then sent off and custom lenses are made.
But these are different. They are soft around the edges so they are comfortable. They are hard in the center, but the center never touches your cornea. They fit over it like a bridge and your natural tears fill in the gap creating what's called a tear lens.
"Which is the real secret of why the patient sees so well," said Dr. Leach.
This lens is not only good for what Donate has, keratoconus, naturally or following surgery, but they also work for people with astigmatisms, near sightedness, farsightedness and people who need bifocals.
Anyone can get these, but because they are custom made, the cost is higher than regular soft lenses. But it's worth it to Donate because it may keep him from one day needing a cornea transplant.
"Now I can blink my eye, and it's very clear," he said.
Anyone with normal vision problems can also use these lenses, but they are more expensive since they are custom made for each patient.
They run about $250 to $350 for two pair that will last a year.
Keratoconus is defined as a progressive decrease in vision, usually beginning in adolescence and then continuing into middle age.
Patients may need a corneal transplant when the cornea scars or contact lenses cannot be tolerated.
