It is not always easy to make the best of every situation, but that is a good maxim by which to live. With presbyopia, it is definitely a challenge to make the best of this change in life. Patients can’t stand this visual degradation process. They equate presbyopia with getting old and can become frustrated about their visual situation. Eyecare professionals don’t usually love dealing with presbyopia every day either. Hearing patients complain about it is a common experience in practice, and it’s not exactly exciting.

So how can you focus on making the best of the situation?

1) Sympathize and Educate

Because I am personally experiencing presbyopia, it is easy for me to relate to patients. But even if you are not experiencing it yet yourself, try making a cheesy joke about it and then quickly move on to the education: “I understand what you are experiencing, and I wish that I could make it just go away! Here’s what is causing you to wish that you had longer arms.”

I think that it is important for our patients to understand what is happening physically to their eyes, and education is the key. Some patients blame their eyecare provider when their eyes get worse after they start wearing reading glasses. Unless you tell them, they don’t realize that their eyes were continuing to age during that time as well.

2) Offer Specific Options

I rarely, if ever, even discuss over-the-counter readers. Many presbyopes have already tried on their friend’s or family member’s readers and realized that they helped. Patients want something prescribed for their specific visual needs. That could be a combination of reading glasses, occupational lenses, progressive addition lenses, and/or contact lenses. Discuss their options, and make recommendations. Contact lenses for presbyopia provide some advantages that are magnified during this era of mask wearing.

3) Offer Contact Lenses to Every Presbyope

I have come to realize that discussing contact lenses with every presbyope does not happen very often in other practices. I say that because many new presbyopic patients in my exam chair are surprised to hear that contact lenses are an option for them.

Don’t stop at just making the offer; take it further by recommending the newest contact lens technology. Make it a priority to offer innovation to each and every patient.

4) Focus on Individual Needs

After you have sympathized and educated, focus on why you are fitting a specific lens design for patients’ vision and how it will help them see better. For example, explain to patients that “I’m prescribing you a new advanced multifocal contact lens that can provide good vision for your distance, intermediate, and near vision needs. Specifically, this lens offers advanced optics along with the convenience of daily disposability.”

5) Put Your Plan in Action

Many eyecare practitioners get into the habit of taking the path of least resistance rather than trying to make the best of each situation. Maybe this is because it is just easier throughout the day. If many of our presbyopes knew that there was a technology such as multifocal contact lenses that could help improve their vision, they would be upset if you did not offer it to them. Prepare your approach with contact lens fits to make contact lens technology for presbyopia a focus within your practice. CLS