Charlotte Contact Lens Institute

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Charlotte Contact Lens Institute

Charlotte Contact Lens Institute is an independent practice providing custom & personalized care.

10/29/2025

Dr. Heather Cipperly shares why she chose this field and what she loves most about contact lenses — seeing firsthand how they can transform daily life by restoring visual quality, relieving discomfort, and even boosting confidence, self-esteem, and independence. ✨️

It’s not just about clearer vision — it’s about helping people see and feel their best. 💙

10/15/2025

Meet Dr. Heather Cipperly!:👩‍⚕️✨

From her Colorado roots to her passion for specialty contact lenses, dry eye care, and myopia management — Dr. Cipperly is dedicated to helping patients see (and feel) their best. 💙

We’re so excited for you to get to know her through this short reel and see why she’s such an important part of our team here at CCLI. 👀💫

09/24/2025

Don’t mind my wrinkly hands and take a look at this beauty! ✨

This soft prosthetic lens was custom-designed for a patient with complexion-associated melanosis. By blending naturally with the conjunctiva, it helps reduce self-consciousness and restores a more even appearance. Most importantly, it’s given him a renewed sense of confidence in his daily life. 🙌

09/19/2025

✨ Exciting News ✨

We’re thrilled to welcome Dr. Heather Cipperly to the Charlotte Contact Lens Institute!

Dr. Cipperly earned her Doctor of Optometry degree from Indiana University and completed her residency in cornea and contact lenses at Nova Southeastern University. She brings extensive experience in managing complex eye conditions, fitting specialty contact lenses, treating dry eye, and helping patients achieve clearer, more comfortable vision.

She has also lectured and presented her research at major optometry conferences, sharing her expertise in specialty lenses and advanced eye care.

Dr. Cipperly is passionate about providing personalized treatment plans that combine cutting-edge technology with compassionate care — and she’s excited to bring her expertise to our patients here at CCLI.

Join us in giving Dr. Cipperly a warm welcome! 💙

09/09/2025

Multifocals are… fun. 😉

Let’s be real, fitting multifocals can be tricky. It’s a constant balancing act between the science and art of lens design, all while factoring in a patient’s lifestyle needs and visual expectations.

One thing that can send us in circles is lens decentration and with it, decentration of the multifocal optics.

With .contact.lens.system sclerals and GPs, you can actually decenter the multifocal optics! I use this feature all the time now, and I owe a big thank you to for teaching me how to do it.

Here’s my process for dialing it in:

1️⃣ Paint the lens with sodium fluorescein and take a slit lamp photo to document the optic zone curve.

2️⃣ Find the optic zone center.

3️⃣ Find the visual axis — remember, the pupil center ≠ visual axis. This is where angle kappa comes in (the angle between the pupillary axis and the visual axis).

4️⃣ Use your topographer to locate the corneal light reflex vs. the pupil center — that’s where the patient fixates. Many topographers or tomographers will even label this for you.

5️⃣ Calculate how far the optic zone center is from the pupil center.

6️⃣ Use Wave’s software to move the optics exactly where you want them.

Fitting multifocals is equal parts art and science, but with the right tools we can shift optics exactly where they need to be. Who else has used decentration in their multifocal designs? I’d love to hear your experience.

09/03/2025

Another day, another microvault design!

This patient traveled internationally to see us, which is truly such an honor. She planned to be in Charlotte for one week and came in wearing lenses 👓 that were not fitting well, with impingement on the pinguecula both nasally and temporally, leaving her with chronically red, irritated eyes.

With the height of her pingueculae, I would have prescribed an impression- or scan-based lens. But those require at least a 3-day washout, and in her case, I would have preferred 5 days with frequent artificial tears before refitting, which was not possible with her short trip.

So, we went with 's ZenLens. ZenLens is one of my favorite sclerals. I love its flexibility in customization, the ability to add HOAs, and (importantly for her) the ability to add two microvaults.

Here’s my step-by-step for microvault design:
1️⃣ Document the hash mark location in degrees.
2️⃣ Record the start and end points of the conjunctival elevation contact with the lens in degrees and millimeters.
3️⃣ Note how far the pinguecula extends into the lens and identify the location of its apex — this helps ensure the microvault is positioned and sized precisely.
4️⃣ Document the elevation of the pinguecula. For reference, the thickness of a trial scleral lens is ~300 µm. Profilometry is great for accuracy, but anterior segment OCT works too — just make sure you measure exactly where the lens comes into contact with the pinguecula.

Give all this info to the consultation team and let them work their magic ✨

08/29/2025

Not Sure Which Specialty Lens Is Right for You?

Not all contact lenses are created equal—and finding the right fit can make all the difference.

Whether you’ve had trouble with soft lenses, struggle with dry eyes, or have a complex prescription, you don’t have to figure it out alone.

At Charlotte Contact Lens Institute, we specialize in custom contact lens fittings using advanced imaging and diagnostic technology—plus we place trial lenses on your eyes during the visit so you can feel the difference firsthand.

RGP, scleral, hybrid, or custom soft? We’ll help you find the lens that fits your vision and lifestyle best.

📞 Call us at 704-800-5230 or check out our website, charlottecontactlens.com, to learn more.

08/20/2025

“I’ve never seen this clearly before.”

It’s a phrase we’re lucky to hear often as specialty lens practitioners. When we add higher-order aberration (HOA) correction using our .us aberrometer, we can take vision to the next level.
Take this 15-year-old patient for example. He had undergone corneal cross-linking and was referred to us for a specialty lens consultation. For his left eye, his best-corrected vision in glasses was 20/150. With scleral contact lenses, he improved to 20/40, but we knew we could do better.

So what was holding him back?

Despite having no corneal scarring, his Ovitz scan (see “before” image) showed a total HOA RMS of 1.67 µm. Scleral contact lenses primarily improve vision by neutralizing anterior corneal curvature irregularities; however, light still must pass through the posterior corneal surface. For this patient, his posterior corneal elevation is highly irregular. You can see that his wavefront map mirrors the posterior elevation map almost exactly. His most significant aberrations were coma and spherical aberration, which are common in keratoconus.

Using the Zenlens Chroma lens design guided by Ovitz aberrometry, we reduced his HOAs to normal levels (see “after” image), and he’s now seeing 20/20.

This is the power of true wavefront-guided correction.

08/12/2025

Don’t have a topographer? A simple GP lens can still reveal a lot about corneal elevation.

The way it aligns (or doesn't) tells a story—pretty amazing what we can learn with just a lens!

Address

5950 Fairview Road Suite 708
Charlotte, NC
28210

Telephone

+17048005230

Website

https://www.charlottecontactlens.com/

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