https://www.charlottecontactlens.com/

Charlotte Contact Lens Institute, Charlotte, NC (2025)

07/23/2025

With the rise in childhood myopia, we're all seeing the need for proactive solutions like MiSight, axial length tracking, and personalized care plans.

Incredible to be surrounded by colleagues who are pushing the boundaries on how we care for our littlest patients' eyes! 🤗

07/17/2025

Here’s a case that required a little creativity! 🤩

This patient needed an ( ) EyePrintPRO lens to vault over a tube shunt with a peak elevation of nearly 700μm. Our initial fit was a textbook success—perfect vault over the tube—but that beautiful clearance came with a catch. The elevated area was rubbing against the inner eyelid, causing significant discomfort throughout the day.

To solve this, I teamed up with the incredible consultation team to redesign the lens. By decreasing the vertical diameter, we reduced how much vault was needed while still clearing the tube. Because the patient also has severe ocular surface disease, it was essential to maintain full coverage of the eye for comfort—cue the elegant oval shape you see here!

We still have some fine-tuning to do, but I couldn’t resist sharing this beautiful piece of art. Isn’t she pretty? ✨

A big thank you to Dr. for co-managing this case with us. We appreciate you! 🙇‍♀️

07/11/2025

Continuing education is what we love at Charlotte and Raleigh Contact Lens Institute ( )✨

This year, our team was fortunate enough to attend ICSC () , or the International Conference of Scleral Contact Lenses. This is a wonderful meeting that brings together all the trailblazers and leaders within the scleral lens world. Topics covered include fitting philosophies, new research, along with fitting tips and tricks. It’s a meeting that our doctors love! 💡

As an added bonus, our doctors—Dr. Moss ( ), Dr. Helin ( ) and Dr. Cerenzie ( )—were able to share some of their own knowledge while speaking at this conference! 🙌

Not only do our doctors have the knowledge, but they also love learning more each day about the latest and greatest within the scleral lens world. ❤️

07/08/2025

Myopia: The Growing Pandemic…

When it comes to myopia, there are some important topics to cover! Although new glasses with updated (STRONGER) prescriptions are relatively common, there are a few options to slow down the progression of myopia! Myopia control can come in different forms, but the goal is always the same: To stop the progressive nearsightedness in children and adolescents.

⚠️ High nearsightedness can increase the risk of retinal detachment, glaucoma, and macular degeneration in the future.

🔵 MiSight:
An FDA-approved myopia control mechanism using peripheral defocus. This design lens is “dual focus” to allow for myopic defocus on the retina to prevent eye growth and therefore myopia.
Limitations: High astigmatism or high Rx may make this design not ideal for some patients.

🌙 Ortho-K:
A nighttime myopia control option. Rigid gas-permeable lenses are worn while sleeping to reshape the cornea and flatten it. This creates peripheral myopic defocus overnight, slowing myopia progression.
✨ Bonus: Many patients can go glasses-free during the day!
Limitations: Comfort issues, very high myopia, or severe astigmatism may limit success.

💧 Atropine:
A nightly eye drop used in both eyes to slow down myopia. While the exact mechanism isn’t perfectly understood, it’s thought to act on muscarinic receptors that influence eye growth.
🧪 Concentrations: Range from 0.01–0.05%, with 0.05% offering the strongest effect.
Limitations: May cause mild light sensitivity and stinging upon insertion.

🔴 Low-Level Red-Light Therapy:
NEW! Still under study… It may influence dopamine levels and alter retinal and choroidal thickness. Not yet available at CCLI!

📍 Stop by our locations Charlotte Contact Lens Institute or to determine if you or your kiddo is a good candidate for myopia control!

07/03/2025

Is it keratoconus… or not quite yet?

This 14-year-old was referred by a local doctor to rule out early keratoconus.
Over the past 14 months, her astigmatism shifted 1.50 D, remaining with-the-rule — a pattern that’s less typical in keratoconus. But that change alone raised concern, and they were absolutely right to dig deeper.

We ran full Pentacam imaging and found:
✔️ Inferior-temporal steepening on axial curvature
✔️ Posterior elevation up to +57 µm
✔️ A BAD-D score of 1.96
✔️ TKC: KC Stage 1
✔️ ABCD: A0 B1 C0 D0 (suggesting early posterior changes)

During her visit, we also witnessed aggressive eye rubbing — a well-documented risk factor in keratoconus progression.
While she doesn’t meet the criteria for frank keratoconus, these subtle signs — especially in someone so young — warrant close observation. And that’s our plan: monitor every 4–6 months with Belin Progression Display and tomography.

Given her excellent vision and comfort with glasses, we ultimately decided to continue with spectacles rather than pursue contact lens wear. The patient was happy with this plan, especially given her hesitancy around touching her eyes.

🧠 Clinical pearl: Diagnoses like these sit in the gray zone. The most responsible action isn’t to jump to labeling — it’s to monitor, educate, and be ready to act if/when progression appears.

👏 Kuddos to the referring OD for catching early shifts and advocating for advanced imaging.

06/19/2025

📊 The power of biometry in action 💪

This amazing patient first came to us in May 2023, and her initial axial length measurements using the Pentacam AXL Wave placed her above the 95th percentile for eye growth—a clear marker of rapid progression and increased risk for future myopia-related complications.

At the time, she was on low-dose atropine 0.01%, but progression continued. With precise biometry guiding our clinical decisions, we initiated combination therapy using MiSight daily lenses and atropine 0.05%.

✨ The result? Her eye growth has dramatically slowed and is now approaching emmetropic rates (~0.1 mm/year).

Her axial length data tells the story:
📈 5/2023 → 5/2025
▫️ OD: 26.438 ➡️ 26.550 mm (+0.112 mm)
▫️ OS: 25.901 ➡️ 26.125 mm (+0.224 mm)

Her prescription has remained stable, and her family is thrilled with her progress.

This case highlights why biometry matters in myopia management. It gives us a clear picture of anatomical change—beyond refraction—and ensures we’re taking the best possible care of our patients' long-term visual health.

📸 (Photos posted with the patient’s consent)

06/17/2025

🌟 New Treatment Alert! 🌟

We’re excited to now offer LacriFill, a cutting-edge option for dry eye relief!

If you're someone who:
✅ Frequently reaches for artificial tears
✅ Struggles with ongoing dry, irritated eyes
✅ Is currently on medications for dry eye
✅ Wants a more lasting, drop-free solution

…LacriFill may be the answer you've been waiting for!

✨ What is LacriFill?

LacriFill is a soft, dissolvable insert placed in the tear drainage canals (puncta) to help retain your own natural tears—offering long-lasting hydration and relief from dry eye symptoms. The procedure is quick, gentle, and performed right in our office.

📹 Curious how it works? Check out this short video for a behind-the-scenes look:

🔗 Watch Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNxCawFl-dc

💬 Why Our Patients Love It:
✔️ Non-surgical & drop-free
✔️ Quick appointment time
✔️ Comfortable, long-lasting moisture
✔️ Great for patients already using drops or other therapies

Whether you're already being treated for dry eye or just starting to experience symptoms, LacriFill can be a great addition to your care plan. Talk to your doctor or our team at your next visit to see if it’s right for you!

📍Now offered at both our Charlotte and Raleigh offices.
Ask us more during your next appointment or call to schedule a consult.

06/12/2025

Can scleral lenses be used for more than vision improvement? ABSOLUTELY! ✨

Scleral lenses can provide an ocular environment that is suited for healing of the cornea as well. This is used in general for dry eye patients, but also patients with non healing defects!

For our patient, she had an epithelial defect that would not heal for a whole year! Imagine a cut on your skin that would not close for 365 days. This is painful and frustrating. 😣

She tried everything:

⚫ Multiple amniotic membranes

⚫ Blood serum eye drops

⚫ Lots of bandage contact lenses

None of these treatments seemed to work, until scleral lenses! 🙌

The scleral lens provided an adequate ocular environment for healing to occur. After 1.5 months, the defect had closed! Her comfort has improved dramatically, and her vision is near 20/20. ✅

The possibilities of scleral lenses are growing year by year, and we are on the front lines at Charlotte Contact Lens Institute and ! ✨

06/05/2025

What to do when traditional scleral lenses don’t improve vision enough?

✨ OVITZ ✨

Our patient was fit with standard scleral lenses but had a central corneal scar. Even after prescription adjustments, vision remained poor—best corrected to 20/40-50. So, we tried something new.
With OVITZ wavefront-guided technology integrated into the lens (), he achieved 20/20-2. He described it as “a night and day difference.”
us measures higher-order aberrations that standard lenses can’t correct. These precise inputs help reduce distortion and glare, improving overall clarity.

📸 The photos show a clear reduction in aberrations—and the vision improvement matched.

This design isn’t for everyone, but for patients who still struggle in traditional scleral lenses, it can be a game-changer.

Proud to offer this advanced technology at both Charlotte and locations!

06/03/2025

Meet our sweet 13-month-old patient, recently fit with contact lenses for high myopia due to Stickler Syndrome—a systemic connective tissue disorder that can affect the eyes, ears, joints, and facial development.
Ocular manifestations of Stickler Syndrome can include high myopia, vitreoretinal degeneration, cataracts, and a significantly increased risk of retinal detachment—making early intervention critical for protecting visual development.

With a prescription of -23.00 D in both eyes, glasses would have caused significant image minification, peripheral distortion, and discomfort from heavy lenses. Contact lenses, by contrast, allow her to look through the optical center of the lens, offering clearer, more stable vision during this crucial time of visual development.

We fit her with monthly silicone hydrogel lenses for maximum oxygen permeability and trained her parents on insertion, removal, and lens care. They were fantastic, and she was a total superstar (and gave me the sweetest cuddles 💕).

We sent her family home with a link to order fluorescein strips to stain the lenses. This will help to help check lens position and confirm it’s still on the eye before removal—an important safety step for little ones.

👓➡️👁️For some children, contact lenses aren’t just an alternative to glasses—they’re the better option for vision, comfort, and development.
*Photos posted with the patient’s consent

05/30/2025

Scars and scleral lenses: When to fit and when to transplant? 👁️

Corneal scars can be especially tough when it comes to scleral lens fitting. The biggest reason is, how well can the patient see afterwards? This tough question depends on a few things:

✨ Density: The density of the scar plays a big role in potential vision. If there is a dense scar, it will be difficult for light to pass through it, even with a scleral lens.

📍 Location: The location of the scar can be very important for visual outcomes. If the scar is directly in front of the pupil, it will be tough for light to pass through and have the patient see well on the eye chart.
Corneal scars, if dense and central, are normally recommended for a corneal transplant. But in specific cases, a scleral lens can greatly restore vision! It is important to try a lens before going “under the knife.”

In certain cases, the doctor and patient can be pleasantly surprised. A dense central scar normally cannot have a great improvement in vision, but it is important to try!

Our pleasant patient was able to go from 20/400 and 20/70 on the eye chart to 20/25 in both eyes. Even with a dense central scar! 👏 Take a look at his thrilled review of CCLI.

As always, come see the doctors at Charlotte Contact Lens Institute to see if your corneal scar needs a transplant, or a scleral lens! And if you’re near Raleigh, check out our team at as well! ✨️

05/29/2025

👁️ From Tarsorrhaphy to Full-Time Scleral Lens Wear: A Case of Surface Recovery

A 74-year-old woman presented to our clinic after researching scleral lenses online. She had undergone surgical tarsorrhaphies in both eyes to manage debilitating dry eye disease that had led to a corneal melt in the right eye and severe discomfort in both eyes. Her goal was to improve comfort and vision through contact lens wear, but the surgically narrowed eyelid openings posed a significant challenge for both fitting and handling.
We provided extensive insertion and removal training using the “envelope” technique, helping her navigate her restricted anatomy safely and independently. Once consistent lens handling was achieved, we fit her with therapeutic scleral lenses for full-time wear.

📈 Results Over Two Months:
✔️ Her corneal epithelium healed dramatically

✔️ Use of artificial tears decreased from every 30 minutes to just 2–3 times per day

✔️ Her vision improved from 20/100 to 20/25 in the right eye and 20/20 in the left

✔️ We co-managed care with her oculoplastic surgeon, gradually reversing the tarsorrhaphies and expanding the lens diameter to improve corneal coverage

Clinical Pearl:
Scleral lenses can serve as a powerful tool in managing severe ocular surface disease—offering not just protection and hydration, but the potential to restore vision and improve quality of life. With proper training and coordinated care, they can even support the reversal of prior surgical interventions like tarsorrhaphy.

Charlotte Contact Lens Institute

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