Scleral Lens Education Society
Board Members:
International Relations Chair
Langis Michaud OD,MSc, FAAO (Dipl), FSLS [email protected]
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Our Platinum Supporters |
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See all our supporters on our website.
www.sclerallens.org |
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Join us for Upcoming Educational Events!
The SLS is proud to be involved in several upcoming educational events:
Click the available links to learn more:
Building your Practice with Specialty Lenses
Seattle Scleral Symposium
September 11th in Seattle, WA
Vision Expo West
International Forum of Scleral Lens Research
December 5th in Houston, TX
Global Specialty Lens Symposium
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Don't Miss Our Upcoming Webinars!
"An Ounce of Prevention, A Pound of Cure: Avoiding and Managing Complications of Scleral Lens Wear"
Presented by Dr. Muriel Schornack
June 22, 2016 at 8:30PM EST
"Billing and Coding Scleral Lens Fittings with Sample Cases"
Presented by Dr. Stephanie Woo & Dr. Mindy Toabe
August 24, 2016 at 8:30PM EST
"Scleral Lens Fitting Basics"
Presented by Dr. Michael J. Lipson
"Scleral Lens Indications"
Presented by Drs. Melissa Barenett and Muriel Schornack
"Billing, Coding and the Economics of Scleral Lenses"
Presented by Dr. Stephanie Woo
"Marketing and Growing Your Scleral Lens Practice"
Presented by Dr. Jason Jedlicka
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Scleral Lens Research Spotlight
"Ocular surface temperature during scleral lens wearing in patients with keratoconus."
Eye & Contact Lens, Published ahead of print May 2016.
G. Carracedo, Z. Wang, M. Serramito-Blanco, A. Martin-Gil, J. Carballo-Alvarez,and J. Pintor
Thermal digital image of the ocular surface. The crosses indicate the locations in which the experimenters measured the temperature of the ocular surface. Ultimately, they found no significant changes of ocular surface temperature during scleral lens wear in a KC population.
Read the full manuscript
for more details.
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Beginning with this issue, each newsletter will feature an active Fellow of the SLS.
Our first Fellow spotlight is Dr. Muriel Schornack, an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Schornack has been a pioneer of scleral lens fitting in the United States, and continues to be an active Clinician-Researcher in the scleral community. She is the immediate past present of the SLS, and remains deeply involved in its mission.
We recently asked Muriel a couple questions about her scleral lens fitting experience:
Q: Who do you consider the most challenging scleral lens patient to fit?
Patients who have had disappointing results with refractive surgery can be challenging. Although the fitting process is no more complex than with other patients, there is frequently a considerable psychological component of care for many of them. They are frequently in the process of grieving for lost expectations. They pursued a surgical procedure in order to eliminate or greatly reduce their need for refractive correction, and now find that they need to wear contact lenses again. By the time that they reach my chair for scleral lens evaluation, they've usually tried a number of other options, possibly with multiple other providers. Both their levels of frustration and their expectations are high. While scleral lenses can provide good comfort and some level of aberration correction, it may not be possible to completely remove frustration and meet expectations with our current lenses. Helping them move beyond anger and denial back into acceptance and appreciation for their visual function is both challenging and rewarding.
Q: What do you consider the most under-explored research topic involving scleral lenses?
Research regarding scleral lenses has just begun to move out of its infancy during the past several years. The field is still wide open for study in any of a number of topics, so to identify one area of research as being the most under-explored is difficult! However, I do think that there are several areas of inquiry that will directly translate to clinical care, and I would like to see emphasis on those areas of study.
As indications for scleral lens prescription expand beyond corneal irregularity and ocular surface disease into correction of uncomplicated refractive error, I believe that it's imperative to define complications that can occur with scleral lens wear, along with incidence of and risk factors associated with those complications. Some complications may be similar to those seen with other lens modalities, but unique fitting characteristics of scleral lenses may give rise to an entirely new set of issues. It's also possible that study of scleral lens-related complications will give us the impetus to question some of our assumptions about the etiology of some complications of other lens designs.
All of this being said, I'm tremendously excited about scleral lens-related research that is now being conducted and published. Many very intelligent people are considering questions and issues related to scleral lenses at the moment, so I think that we can expect our understanding of these lenses and their effects on the eye to expand considerably in the coming years!
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The Scleral Lens Education Society offers a $750 travel grant to current fourth year optometry students and optometry residents! If you are presenting a scleral lens related poster or paper at American Academy of Optometry or Global Specialty Lens Symposium, please
click here to learn more about the grant and to apply!
Recent winners:
2015 AAO grant:
Jamie Kuzniar, Ferris State
2016 GSLS grant:
Dr. Stefanie Chan, UC Berkeley
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Announcing the newest Scleral Lens Society Fellows!
Please welcome our newest Fellows! These practitioners have demonstrated superior scleral lens expertise and knowledge.
Dirk Booysen, OD, FSLS
Allison Moy, OD, FSLS
Vivien Tse OD, FAAO, FSLS
Gloria Chiu, OD, FAAO, FSLS
Susan Gromacki, OD, MS, FAAO, FSLS
Andrea Lasby, OD, FAAO, FSLS
Thomas Arnold, OD, FSLS
Interested in becoming a fellow?
Click here to apply for fellowship.
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Have an interesting case report?
If you have a scleral lens case report that you would be willing to share, please send it to
scleral lens society.
These case reports will be in an upcoming publication, and may be featured in our quarterly newsletter.
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New Updates to our Website!
Sclerallens.org has great information for practitioners and patients alike, and has been recently updated! Printable information, videos, and brochures are available.
Also visit the GPLI and I-site websites for valuable scleral lens information.
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Membership allows contact lens fitters and students access to the practitioner's section of the website that contains scleral lens fitting resources.
Fellowship is the next step after becoming a member, and is available to experienced practitioners and researchers.
There are approximately 75 Optometrists, ophthalmologists, and Fellows of the Contact Lens Society of America (FCLSA) worldwide who are active Fellows of the Scleral Lens Education Society.
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About the SLS
The Scleral Lens Education Society (SLS) is a non-profit organization 501(c)3 commited to teaching contact lens practitioners the science and art of fitting all designs of scleral contact lenses for the purpose of managing corneal irregularity and ocular surface disease. SLS supports public education that highlights the benefits and availability of scleral contact lenses.
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