Purpose <p>To characterize the temporal profile of corneal recovery following apical clearance-fitted rigid gas-permeable (RGP) lens cessation in keratoconus and define a clinically feasible and sufficient period for reliable baseline morphology.</p> Methods <p>This retrospective longitudinal study included 42 eyes of 23 patients with keratoconus newly fitted with standard aspheric (<i>n</i> = 18) or Rose K2 (<i>n</i> = 24) corneal lenses using an apical clearance approach. Corneal tomography was assessed at baseline, at 1st, 4th, and 12th week of daily lens wear (30&#xa0;min after lens removal), and at 1st, 2nd, and 4th week after complete lens cessation. Longitudinal changes in sagittal corneal power and seven Pentacam indices were analyzed using linear mixed models.</p> Results <p>In the standard aspheric group, central corneal flattening was observed 30&#xa0;min after lens removal; K2 at 4.0&#xa0;mm decreased significantly from a baseline of 49.54 ± 0.81 D to 49.15 ± 0.82 D, and to 49.14 ± 0.81 D at 1st and 4th week (<i>p</i> = 0.005, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.001 respectively, the later survived Bonferroni correction). In the Rose K2 group, no significant change of K1, K2 or Km was noted. Pentacam indices also showed significant deviations with the index of surface variance (ISV) decreasing significantly at 1st week in standard aspheric group (<i>p</i> = 0.0016, statistically significant after Bonferroni correction) after 30&#xa0;min cessation. Following complete lens cessation, no statistically significant differences were observed in any sagittal power parameters or tomographic indices at 1st, 2nd, and 4th week compared with baseline values (all <i>p</i> &gt; 0.05).</p> Conclusion <p>Corneal morphological changes associated with a 12-week regimen of daily-wear apical clearance-fitted RGP lenses in keratoconic eyes were transient and returned to values not significantly different from baseline after one week of lens cessation.</p>