Light rays enter the eye through the cornea, the clear front “window” of the eye. The cornea’s refractive power bends the light rays in such a way that they pass freely through the pupil the opening in the center of the iris through which light enters the eye.
The iris works like a shutter in a camera. It has the ability to enlarge and shrink, depending on how much light is entering the eye.
After passing through the iris, the light rays pass thru the eye’s natural crystalline lens. This clear, flexible structure works like the lens in a camera, shortening and lengthening its width in order to focus light rays properly.
Light rays pass through a dense, transparent gel-like substance, called the vitreous that fills the globe of the eyeball and helps the eye hold its spherical shape.
In a normal eye, the light rays come to a sharp focusing point on the retina. The retina functions much like the film in a camera. It is responsible for capturing all of the light rays, processing them into light impulses through millions of tiny nerve endings, then sending these light impulses through over a million nerve fibers to the optic nerve.
Because the keratoconus cornea is irregular and cone shaped, light rays enter the eye at different angles, and do not focus on one point the retina, but on many different points causing a blurred, distorted image.
In summary, the cornea is the clear, transparent front covering which admits light and begins the refractive process. It also keeps foreign particles from entering the eye.
The pupil is an adjustable opening that controls the intensity of light permitted to strike the lens. The lens focuses light through the vitreous humor, a clear gel-like substance that fills the back of the eye and supports the retina.