Keratoconus Care & Scleral Lens Fitting in Tamarindo, Costa Rica
Our Medical Director, Dr. Roya Habibi, a UC Berkeley-trained keratoconus specialist and FAAO Fellow, personally trains our Tamarindo optometrists in scleral lens fitting and specialty contact lenses to ensure our patients get the relief they deserve.
If you've been told your vision can't be corrected, we've heard that before.
Schedule a free 10-minute consultation and let's talk.
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What is Keratoconus?
Keratoconus (care-uh-toe-cone-us) is a progressive visual condition that leads to blurry vision, glare, light sensitivity, double vision and, in extreme cases, blindness. Keratoconus affects the window of the eye, or the cornea, and causes it to progressively thin and deform which leads to distortion and blurred vision.
So what is actually happening?
The cornea, or clear window of the eye, is a clear dome shaped structure that helps direct light into the eye. If the shape of this window becomes warped or distorted, it affects how light is bent into the eye and leads to glare and irregular vision. Anatomically, the structure of the eye is weak and this results in an outward stretching of the tissue. This weakening and stretching can continue and eventually lead to ripping and scarring in the clear window of the eye.
The earliest signs of keratoconus include:
Blurry vision even with correction
Due to an irregular shape of the eye, vision is rarely corrected or perfectly improved with glasses and normal contact lenses.
Quickly changing vision
If your vision seems to be changing every 4-6 months, then additional testing should be completed
Increasing sensitivity to light
Someone struggling with keratoconus will feel more discomfort from glare and brightness, especially at night time
Why don't glasses work to correct vision when someone has keratoconus?
When the cornea's smooth domed shape begins to distort, it results in light being bent in many directions. This non-uniformity means that a normal glasses prescription can no longer correct the vision. Think of it like looking through the ocean on a calm day versus looking through the ocean during a storm. Our scleral lens specialists in Tamarindo, Costa Rica are here to walk you through every detail, to ensure you feel well informed, cared for, and confident in your care.
Are there any options to see better if I have keratoconus?
Going back to the ocean metaphor — the only thing that would let you see through stormy water is a glass-bottom boat. The hull creates a smooth, flat plane between your eye and the chaos beneath it. Scleral lenses work the same way.
Scleral lenses are large-diameter gas permeable contact lenses that vault entirely over the irregular cornea, replacing its distorted surface with a perfectly smooth optical plane. The fluid-filled space between the lens and your eye eliminates the irregularity that glasses can never correct. The result is clear, stable vision that most keratoconus patients have stopped expecting.
At our Tamarindo clinic, our scleral lens specialists custom-fit every lens to the exact topography of your cornea. No off-the-shelf sizing — each fit is mapped and refined until your vision is where it needs to be. For keratoconus patients in Guanacaste and across Costa Rica, this is often the first time they've seen clearly in years.
Is there a cure for keratoconus?
What is the worst case scenario for keratoconus?
If someone with keratoconus goes unmanaged, their cornea can distort and bulge to the point of thinning, scarring or rupturing. These circumstances can also lead to the need for a corneal transplantation that is a significant life event and comes with many potential side effects.
Will a corneal transplant give me a normal eye back?
Not always. While corneal surgery has progressed dramatically over the past few decades, including new surgical techniques and lessened risks, it still often results in the need for glasses and contact lenses. In fact, the best visual outcomes after a corneal transplant require a gas permeable contact lens at least 30% of the time.
What can Ojos Del Mar do to help me with my condition?
More than you've likely been told is possible.
Dr. Roya Habibi is a UC Berkeley-trained optometrist, FAAO Fellow, and FSLS-certified scleral lens specialist who has spent her career working with patients whose vision couldn't be corrected through conventional means. She personally trains every optometrist at our Tamarindo clinic in advanced keratoconus management and scleral lens fitting — the same techniques used at top specialty practices in North America.
When you come to Ojos Del Mar, here's what that looks like in practice:
A detailed corneal topography mapping your exact corneal shape. A fitting process calibrated specifically to your eye — not a generic lens pulled off a shelf. Custom scleral and gas permeable lenses that vault over the irregular cornea and restore the smooth optical surface your vision needs. And a follow-up process that doesn't stop until your vision is where it should be.
We serve keratoconus patients from across Guanacaste — Tamarindo, Potrero, Flamingo, Nosara, and beyond — as well as medical travelers who come to Costa Rica specifically for specialty eye care they can't access or afford at home.
If you've been living with blurry, shifting, or uncorrectable vision, a single consultation can change what you think is possible.
