Eyes can be damaged in so many ways.
Degenerative diseases such as Keratoconus, bad surgical outcomes, or accidental injury, can all inflict serious vision loss.
Many times the patient is told that vision cannot be restored due to corneal scaring.
What is often not said, is that special contact lenses can often be designed and worn that will restore the sight in many of these eyes.
Why is this information withheld? Usually because they do not offer the service and are unwilling to refer to those who do.
I had a case a few months ago of a 12yo boy who's father hit his eye with the tip of a machete.
The eye was saved, and when healing was complete he was told that he would have to live with the resulting loss of vision.
But by great luck, we happened to see him.
With the use of digital corneal mapping software and my design work, we were able to fit him into a special custom contact lens that restored 20/20 vision to that eye.
What a smile he had! On another day, I happened to be at a store and recognized an old patient from some years previous.
When I asked him how he was doing, he told me that he had had eye surgery a year earlier, but the surgeon had made a mistake.
The eye had suffered a serious central ulcer of the cornea and everything he saw out of the eye was 'crazy'.
He said he often had to patch the eye to keep is balance.
I talked him into coming by the office.
Using the same technology, I was able to fit him into a lens that eliminated his distortion.
While the hazy scar prevented what I would call 'good vision', he was greatly benefited by no longer having such distorted vision.
If you know someone who has had damage to the front of the eye, however it may have occurred, make sure they are aware that there are doctors such as myself who are available to help.
New custom systems of lens design such as WAVE have made it possible for the doctor to control every parameter of lens design.
The result restores clear vision to many who had given up.