An international contact lens expert claims that the 30 per cent ‘drop out’ rate of contact lens wearers can be dramatically reduced if optometrists change the way they consult with and educate their patients.
President of the British Contact Lens Association (BCLA), Shelly Bansal (pictured top right), said technology had evolved to the point that there is now a contact lens for almost everyone – even those with astigmatism.
It’s simply a case of educating patients on the benefits of contact lenses, performing regular eye examinations, and communicating carefully with your patients to identify opportunities to change the contact lens prescription for enhanced vision.
Speaking at a roadshow hosted by Johnson & Johnson Vision Care during July, Mr. Bansal said optometrists should embrace the opportunity to promote contact lenses as they have enormous potential to build a practice’s business. Most contact lens wearers, he said, will also buy and wear spectacles.
Additionally, tests to check vision stability…are valuable
Johnson & Johnson Vision Care hosted the roadshow throughout Australia and New Zealand to launch 1 Day Acuvue Moist for Astigmatism, an expansion to their 1 Day Acuvue Moist range. The company claims the expanded range, which has been designed specifically for new CL users, ensures there is now a contact lens for more than 90 per cent of people who need vision enhancement.
Education and Cons ultation Needed
When talking to patients, Luke Cahill, Professional Affairs Director at J&J says it is important that optometrists educate them about the safety, comfort and vision benefits of wearing contact lenses. Additionally, he recommends optometrists ask their patients about the experiences they have had with contact lenses in an effort to uncover any hidden issues. Asking the appropriate questions and running some basic vision stability tests can determine, for instance, whether the prescribed contact lens is providing the optimum result or whether Accelerated Stabilisation Design (ASD) lenses would be more appropriate.
According to Mr. Cahill, questions such as “how often do you notice your vision blurring when you read or use your computer?” or “How often does your vision fluctuate when you reverse your car out of the driveway?” also may help identify patients that would benefit from Accelerated Stabilisation Design (ASD) lenses.
Additionally, tests to check vision stability, such as asking a patient to read the near chart, then tilt their head to one side and blink for 10 seconds before reading the near chart again are valuable. If the patient’s acuity drops with the tilted head, the patient would benefit from ASD lenses.
He says that even a cylinder correction of 0.75DC, never left out of spectacle prescriptions but often left out of contact lens prescriptions, can make the difference between “clear, comfortable vision and grumbling frontal headaches”.
1 Day Acuvue Moist
With over 1,500 parameters, he said that 1 Day Acuvue Moist for Astigmatism has the broadest range of parameters for toric daily disposable lenses, making them ideal for all contact lens wearers. With the ability to provide optimum vision, the company believes its latest product will help reduce the percentage of the contact lens population that choose to opt out of wearing CLs in favour of spectacles.
