**4. Conclusions**

Despite current surgical advances in KC treatment, CLs continue to be important for visual rehabilitation (even after surgery) in KC. Advances in CL design and materials have significantly expanded the application area of CL in the KC and ensured that the majority of patients have a satisfactory visual acuity. Thus, the rate of patients undergoing keratoplasty has decreased or the need for keratoplasty has been delayed. Although it takes a lot of time to choose the appropriate lens in KC, most of the patients with KC can benefit from CL use with the new designs and materials developed. CLs offer non-surgical options generally preferred for vision rehabilitation in the KC. SCLs, RGPs, PBCLs, HCLs, S-CLs constitute the contemporary range of lens types available for the vision rehabilitation of KC patients. This wide CL range meets the optometric needs of most of the patients with KC disease today and eliminates the need for major surgical procedures such as keratoplasty for vision rehabilitation for most of the patients.

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**Author details**

Kafkas University Faculty of Medicine, Kars, Turkey

provided the original work is properly cited.

\*Address all correspondence to: ersinmuhafiz@hotmail.com

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

Ersin Muhafiz

a last option.

**Conflict of interest**

*Advances in Non-surgical Treatment Methods in Vision Rehabilitation of Keratoconus Patients*

Today, while SCL and HCL are the most commonly used in mild KC, the most frequently used CL in advanced KC is still RGPs and S-CLs. Since KC is a progressive disease, CL compliance should be controlled dynamically in certain periods of the patient's vision and comfort. If discomfort or intolerance develops in RGP, soft toric, PBCL or hybrid lenses may be considered. In the initial stages of the disease, SCLs are usually applied before other CLs are tried. Thus, the patient attains a good visual acuity and quality of life. When SCLs cannot provide this, secondly, RGPs are preferred because they provide a significant improvement in vision quality. When unsuccessful results are obtained with these CLs, PBCL or HCLs are used. If problems are encountered with these CLs, S-CLs are usually tried before surgery as

Imaging technologies such as corneal topography and OCT have enabled us to examine in vivo the relationship between asymmetric cornea and lens in the KC. Even with different modern CL treatments, it was found that both the quality of vision and life were lower in KC patients compared with the control group (healthy individuals without KC disease). This shows that CL treatment options and alterna-

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94250*

tives in KC treatment still need to be advanced.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

*Advances in Non-surgical Treatment Methods in Vision Rehabilitation of Keratoconus Patients DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94250*

Today, while SCL and HCL are the most commonly used in mild KC, the most frequently used CL in advanced KC is still RGPs and S-CLs. Since KC is a progressive disease, CL compliance should be controlled dynamically in certain periods of the patient's vision and comfort. If discomfort or intolerance develops in RGP, soft toric, PBCL or hybrid lenses may be considered. In the initial stages of the disease, SCLs are usually applied before other CLs are tried. Thus, the patient attains a good visual acuity and quality of life. When SCLs cannot provide this, secondly, RGPs are preferred because they provide a significant improvement in vision quality. When unsuccessful results are obtained with these CLs, PBCL or HCLs are used. If problems are encountered with these CLs, S-CLs are usually tried before surgery as a last option.

Imaging technologies such as corneal topography and OCT have enabled us to examine in vivo the relationship between asymmetric cornea and lens in the KC. Even with different modern CL treatments, it was found that both the quality of vision and life were lower in KC patients compared with the control group (healthy individuals without KC disease). This shows that CL treatment options and alternatives in KC treatment still need to be advanced.
