If you are in a proactive contact lens practice, it is an exciting time to be an eyecare provider. That is evident after attending the 2018 Global Specialty Lens Symposium in Las Vegas this past January. I am now wondering whether we are entering a new growth curve in the contact lens market. To join in, consider how many tools you have in your contact lens tool bag as well as your office culture. Your culture will determine how specific situations are handled in your office.

What Would You Do?

A Multifocal Contact Lens Wearer Ask yourself how you would handle this situation. An existing multifocal contact lens wearer in your practice presents to your office complaining about her vision at both distance and near. She is frustrated with her lenses and hopes that something can be done.

• Do you take offense to her complaints and tell her that she just isn’t a good candidate for multifocal contact lenses?
• Do you discuss the advantages of progressive addition lenses and recommend that she discontinues contact lens wear?
• Do you tell her that that’s the best she can do and provide her with the same prescriptions without options to improve?

If you have the tools in your tool bag, you could discuss the challenges of multifocal contact lenses while offering a new, innovative design that may satisfy this patient’s visual needs. Don’t forget to discuss how this technology may improve her comfort and vision while on digital devices for long hours.

An Advancing Young Myopic Patient How would you handle this situation?

• Do you provide him with an increased prescription and move to the next exam room? Consider the fact that the perfect myopia control option is not yet available until it halts myopia all together.
• Do you discuss with him the reasons for an increase in myopia and provide potential myopia control options? You must understand the limitations that these lenses have, but have a protocol in place to proactively prescribe these lenses.

A Positive Culture

These are prime examples of the perceived contact lens culture in your office, a culture that is built from the practitioners’ perspective. Having the tools and the ability to be creative with those tools when necessary are critical to success.

A positive contact lens culture is one that looks to meet and exceed patients’ expectations. If your patients’ ocular health and visual demands require the advantages of scleral lenses, is the office prepared and ready to offer them? There are advancing scleral lens designs for normal corneas that may prove useful for a variety of reasons, including assisting “difficult-to-fit” presbyopic astigmatic patients better compared with other current options.

Additionally, this culture is one that asks the extra questions. If patients present looking to update their prescription and say their contact lenses are “fine,” practitioners should look to understand what “fine” means.

Future Direction

For 2018, consider expanding your contact lens tool bag and shifting the office culture. Not only are you providing the highest quality lens care, but you are expanding your patient base and improving the per-patient revenue. With that in place, practice differentiation and growth are sure to follow. CLS