Cornea Specialist

What is the cornea?

The cornea is your eye’s outermost layer; dome-shaped and clear, as it allows light into your eye, it bends it to help your eye focus. 

The cornea also protects the delicate parts of your eye by filtering out some of the sun’s ultraviolet light and acting as a shield against dirt, germs, and other particles.

What are the most common symptoms of corneal conditions?

If the cornea becomes damaged by injury, disease, or infection, you can experience many different symptoms. The symptoms most common among corneal conditions include:

• Blurred vision
• Pain 
• Extreme light sensitivity
• Significant redness
• Excessive tearing or corneal discharge
• Corneal scarring

Corneal conditions that cause symptoms like these may include:

Keratitis

Keratitis is a corneal inflammation that occurs alongside infections caused by fungi or bacteria. Germs can enter the eye after a deep injury, including a contact lens-related injury.

Shingles

Shingles, or herpes zoster, is reactivated chickenpox in people who have had the virus earlier in life. If you contract shingles in your eye, it can cause lesions and blisters on your cornea, along with nerve pain, and fever. 

Ocular herpes

Ocular herpes causes cornea surface inflammation and sores that, over time, can spread deeper into your cornea and eye. It usually comes from herpes simplex I.

Dry eye

Dry eye is a condition that makes it difficult for your eyes to stay properly lubricated and to receive nourishment. Typically, insufficient tear production or poor quality tear production causes dry eyes. Dry eyes can also be a symptom of allergies.

Dry eye causes scratchy eyes, burning or stinging eyes, blurred vision, the sensation of heavy eyelids, and discharge.

Other corneal conditions include pterygium, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS), Iridocorneal Endothelial Syndrome (ICE), and numerous corneal diseases.

Can you correct significant vision loss?

You can usually heal or manage the symptoms of corneal infections and irritations with medicated eye drops, but eye drops can’t reverse cornea damage.

To correct cornea damage, consider:

Phototherapeutic keratectomy (laser surgery)

Laser surgery restores the cornea using a combination of laser technology and ultraviolet light. This relatively conservative treatment postpones the need for more extensive surgery, like corneal transplant surgery.

Corneal transplant surgery

During corneal transplant surgery, your team removes all or just the damaged portion of your cornea and replaces it with healthy donor cornea tissue. 

Depending on the extent of your cornea damage, Suburban Eye Associates can recommend numerous types of cornea transplants, including lamellar keratoplasty, penetrating keratoplasty, and Descemet’s Stripping with Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSEK). 

If corneal transplants don’t work for you, you may be eligible for an artificial cornea replacement called a KPro.

The practice may also recommend new procedures like corneal cross-linking or Intacs surgery to help stop the progression of corneal diseases.

If a corneal condition is limiting your vision or causing you pain, don’t wait any longer to get help. To schedule a cornea consultation with the experts at Suburban Eye Associates, book an appointment today.