Meet Our Keratoconus Specialist in Long Island, New York
Dr. Shane Galan was born and raised in Rockaway Beach and Oceanside NY. He graduated from SUNY Albany in 1991 and The New England College of Optometry in 1996. In 1997, Dr. Galan completed his residency at the Northport VA Hospital and has owned Diamond Vision since 2000. Dr. Galan is married to his wife Amy, and has two children (Hunter and Alexa), and adopted the world's cutest dog named Ozzie.
Dr. Galan has continued his education in optometry to specialize in contact lenses. While most optometrists can fit standard soft lenses for patients who are nearsighted, have a slight astigmatism, or presbyopic, very few eye doctors develop expertise in helping patients with corneal disease. Although in many practices, the standard protocol is to use rigid gas permeable lenses (also known as RGP's), Dr Galan has expanded his practice with additional contact lenses for greater variety and ensuring his patients have the comfort and visual clarity they need. The most commonly fitted and preferred of these specialty contact lenses are called scleral contact lenses.
In addition to helping patients with corneal disease, Dr. Galan is also very passionate about helping children manage their myopia (also known as nearsightedness ) Dr Galan designs custom-made contact lenses that may prevent the children's myopia (nearsightedness) from progressing into a higher prescription. Although myopia management has been well-researched over the past 30 years, proving that eye disease is closely linked to high prescriptions, unfortunately, many eye care practitioners still continue to prescribe glasses to children, which do not slow the progression of myopia.
Dr. Galan decided to help educate parents about myopia, and its progression. Utilizing the correct myopia management treatments such as Orthokeratology, soft multifocal contact lenses, and atropine can effectively keep a child's eye health and prescription stable. Dr. Galan continues to build his practice with modern technology combined with the latest techniques in the field of optometry so every patient will be guaranteed a lifetime of good eye health & clear vision.
Dr. Galan and the entire staff look forward to meeting you and your family. We provide an atmosphere that is warm and caring. We take the time to listen to all of your needs and concerns and will address all of them. This is why most of our patients are referred by family and friends than any other source.
Our Doctor Can Diagnosis and Treat Keratoconus
Your cornea is the transparent, outer lens of your eye, and it typically has a smooth dome shape. Keratoconus describes a condition in which the corneal structure isn’t strong enough to maintain a healthy ball shape.
Meet with our Keratoconus Specialist in Long Island, New York to define your eye's condition and ways for treatment.
As a result, the cornea bulges outward into more of a cone. Our professional optometric team at our eye care clinic is knowledgeable about how to diagnose and treat keratoconus.
Keratoconus is rare, with an estimated one person out of every 2,000 having the condition. It generally appears in the teenage years and can progress slowly or rapidly.
Keratoconus also runs in families, so if you or your children are at risk, it’s advised to contact us for a thorough eye exam.
Causes of Keratoconus
Your cornea is held in place by very small collagen fibers. When they are weakened and too fragile, they aren’t able to preserve the round shape of your cornea.
A reduction in the protective antioxidants of your cornea, which act to destroy damaging by-products made naturally by corneal cells, is what causes keratoconus.
In addition to genetics, some types of eye injuries may increase your chance of being diagnosed with keratoconus.
Specific ocular diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa, vernal keratoconjunctivitis and retinopathy of prematurity, as well as some systemic conditions (Down syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Leber's congenital amaurosis and osteogenesis imperfecta) are also associated with this corneal abnormality.
Our Keratoconus Specialist in Long Island, New York has years of experience identifying the various levels of keratoconus and other corneal conditions.
Symptoms of Keratoconus
When the shape of your cornea begins to bulge, it alters your eyesight in two different ways. As the cone shape forms, your normally smooth corneal surface becomes wavy, called irregular astigmatism. Additionally, as your cornea expands, vision becomes increasingly nearsighted. Focusing becomes impossible without eyeglasses or contact lenses. Usually, the problems begin in one eye and develop later in the other eye too.
Typically, patient’s eyeglass prescription will change often as the vision becomes worse and contact lenses will be difficult to wear due to discomfort and improper fit.
When keratoconus become more severe (which usually takes a long time however on occasion can happen rather quickly), the cornea can begin to swell and form scar tissue. This scar tissue can result in even further visual distortion and blurred vision.
Altogether, these changes can create the following symptoms:
- Blurred vision
- Streaking of lights
- Halos around bright lights at night; glare
- Sudden change of vision in only one eye
- Objects appear distorted, both near and distant
- Double vision from just one eye
- Triple ghost images
How We Diagnose Keratoconus
Our eye doctors will inspect carefully for the signs of keratoconus during your comprehensive eye exam. It’s critical to inform us of any symptoms that you’ve been experiencing. To diagnose the condition, we’ll measure the shape of your cornea. Computerized Corneal Topography is used for this procedure, which takes a picture of your cornea and analyzes it instantly.