Deep dive into scleral lenses

Daddi Fadel, founder of Euroscole

The European School of Scleral Lenses (Euroscole) visited the UK recently for a two-day educational workshop to advance the profession’s knowledge of scleral contact lenses.

The advanced workshop was held in Greater Manchester and included lectures on the scleral lens fitting process, scleral topography and lens design, intraocular pressure and scleral lenses, scleral lens in keratoconus, prisms and empirical fitting. It also featured hands-on sessions covering OCT use in the scleral lens application process and recognition of fitting issues, the use of pentacam CSP for lens customisation, the use of ESP for lens selection and customisation and EPP taking moulds of the eye.

Internationally acclaimed contact lens designer, Daddi Fadel, founded Euroscole last year and has already taken it to around 20 different countries.

Dr Fadel, who is a global ambassador for the British Contact Lens Association, said: “Euroscole is a project I’ve had in my mind for many years. When I started travelling to the US, I saw their approach to speciality lenses was different because they had better education on it. As a result, they weren’t intimidated by the prospect of fitting these lenses.

“Our education in Europe was related to the industry, which is great, but I thought we needed some education here on scleral lenses. We had our first Euroscole event in Ireland last year and we’ve done 18 more around the world in Europe, the Middle East, Dubai, Beirut and South Africa. This latest event was an advanced workshop where we discussed several advanced applications of scleral lenses and things like overnight wear, prismatic corrections and how to resolve important complications scleral lenses.

Workshop delegates

“Other topics we addressed included how to empirically fit scleral lenses, how to do impressions and how to customise lenses because many patients have especially challenging eyes so you cannot rely on the lenses available in the market,” added Dr Fadel.

The event was attended by representatives of some of the UK’s leading independent practices, included several members of Hakim Group.

Speakers included Brian Tompkins of multi award-winning Tompkins Knight and Son Optometrists in Northampton, a Hakim Group independent practice, who said: “This event has educated people about how to deal with problems, how to manage patients and has given them the opportunity to see things they might not get chance to see in their own practices.”

John Davidson, of Querido and Davidson Opticians, a Hakim Group independent practice, travelled from Newcastle upon Tyne to attend the event.

He said: “I’ve been fitting scleral lenses for 15 years but the manufacturing technology has completely changed in the past five years. There’s new things happening all the time and when you attend an event like this it makes you realise that even though you have some advanced skills, there’s always more to learn.”