The Contact Lens Is Dead

BY JOSEPH T. BARR, O.D., M.S., Editor
APR. 1996

I awoke in a cold sweat. My heart was pounding. It was 2:00 a.m. This isn't the first time I've dreaded writing my editorial, but this time my message is ominous. Refractive surgery researchers have discovered how to treat astigmatism and presbyopia as well as myopia with awesome precision. All they need now is the FDA's blessing.

But there's more. In a bizarre joint venture, fashion fanatics and futurists have created spectacle frames that are more effective cosmetic enhancements than plastic surgery to make people look young and beautiful. According to USA Today and the The Wall Street Journal, Atlanta, Jacksonville and Rochester are leading the country in unemployment, and contact lens company stocks are plummeting.

I sat up in bed, tore off the covers, ran to the bathroom and turned on the lights. I look a mess. But then, what's a man who's about to lose the only editorial job he's ever had and loved supposed to look like? Maybe I should call someone. But who? My publisher to tell him not to throw away the classifieds? My dean to tell him not to rely on the contact lens clinic income? Or do I warn my colleagues in practice that it's time to get another life.

I splashed cold water on my face. This isn't a dream. It's real. Contact lens practice is doomed, mortally wounded, dying. We, who have long been dedicated to contact lenses, have been duped. The contact lens is now a rarely-used therapeutic device, relegated to a dusty shelf like an old eye patch or a rare haptic lens.

I went to my office and turned on the word processor. I went downstairs, made some coffee, and returned to the computer. What do I write? My life is ruined as are the lives of so many other contact lens mavens. Spectacle manufacturers and refractive surgeons have won and the refractive researchers have found a way to finally eradicate myopia. What do I tell our readers? I downed my coffee and began to type.

April Fools! About one-third of all U.S. myopes use contact lenses and about half have tried them.

Think of the options available today:

• new bifocal contact lenses;
• new soft and RGP materials;
• toric lenses (many patients don't even know contact lenses can correct astigmatism);
• disposable colored lenses;
• disposable and planned replacement lenses; and
• orthokeratology.

If you can't find an opportunity in this industry with the limitations on spectacles and refractive surgery, and the pipe dream of refractive error control, then you need more help than we can provide.

No, the contact lens is not dead, it's very much alive and thriving. CLS