Jewel City Optometry • Glendale, CA
When your vision stays blurry despite prescription changes, the shape of your cornea deserves a closer look. Keratoconus care starts with understanding those changes—and finding the right next step for your eyes.
At Jewel City Optometry, Dr. Arlene T. Yepremian, O.D., helps you understand your vision correction options, ongoing monitoring, and when a corneal specialist should be involved.
Understanding your cornea
Your cornea is the clear front surface of your eye. In keratoconus, it gradually thins and bulges outward, creating an irregular shape that prevents light from focusing evenly.
This can cause increasing nearsightedness and irregular astigmatism. Glasses may work well early on, but as the cornea changes, a new glasses prescription alone may no longer provide clear vision.
These symptoms can have other causes, too. An evaluation helps identify what is affecting your vision.
Whether you have a recent diagnosis or have managed keratoconus for years, your symptoms and previous findings help guide your care. Monitoring looks beyond your prescription to assess whether the cornea is changing.
Discuss when your vision changed, how it affects daily tasks, your lens comfort, and any history of eye rubbing, allergies, or keratoconus in your family.
Your evaluation includes vision and prescription assessment. Corneal shape mapping and thickness measurements are obtained or coordinated when clinically appropriate.
Comparing findings over time helps identify progression. Your follow-up schedule and any specialist recommendations are based on your individual findings.
Let’s review your symptoms and discuss your next step.
Managing keratoconus means addressing both how you see and whether your condition is progressing. Contact lenses correct vision; they do not stop the cornea from changing.
Depending on your corneal shape, options include glasses, rigid gas-permeable lenses, hybrid lenses, or scleral lenses. Specialty lenses create a more regular optical surface to improve focus.
Scleral lenses vault over the cornea and rest on the white part of the eye. An individualized fitting assesses vision, comfort, and eye health, with follow-up to refine the fit.
If progression is suspected, a corneal specialist can evaluate you for corneal cross-linking—a procedure intended to strengthen the cornea and slow or halt further progression.
Cross-linking is not a replacement for vision correction. More advanced disease or significant scarring may require discussion of other procedures, including corneal transplantation. Recommendations depend on your corneal health and visual needs.
Learn more about lenses designed for irregular corneas before your visit.
Previous records help us understand what has changed. If you have them, bring:
Need help preparing? Call our team at (818) 240-3937.
Discuss your vision with Dr. Arlene T. Yepremian, O.D., and understand the correction, monitoring, and specialist care that fit your needs.
Jewel City Optometry • 839 N Glendale Ave, Glendale, CA 91206
