DRY EYE CHALLENGES

The Quick Poll in the Sept. 11 issue of Contact Lenses Today (bit.ly/CLT091122 )—“Which of the following helps alleviate dry eye in soft lens wears most efficaciously?”—took me back to an article Steve Zantos and I authored in the September 1989 issue of Contact Lens Spectrum titled “Practitioner Survey: Management of Dry Eye Symptoms in Soft Lens Wearers.”

Allow me to contextualize the juxtaposition of these two surveys that are 33 years apart. In the late 1980s, the use of planned or frequent replacement soft contact lenses were still emerging, the first multipurpose solution for soft contact lenses had just been introduced, the launch of the first daily disposable lens was still six years away, and the launch of silicone hydrogel lenses was at least a decade away.

Our survey sought to investigate the incidence of dry eye symptoms in soft lens wearers and to understand how eyecare professionals managed these patients. We found that approximately 20% to 30% of wearers experience dry eye symptoms, and I suspect it’s about the same percentage today or possibly even higher (Gomes et al, 2017). We asked similar questions as the Quick Poll about preferred lens water content—higher or lower—and arrived at results not all that different from what your results are showing.

Over these past decades, manufacturers have introduced a wide array of daily disposable, two-week, and monthly replacement soft contact lenses in a variety of advanced materials and optical designs. They bring excellent vision through consistently reliable and predictable correction with single vision, toric, multifocal, and myopia management lenses.

Despite the significant advancements that benefit hundreds of millions of people around the world who use contact lenses each day, isn’t it incredible that, after all this time, we continue to face many of the same dryness-related patient management challenges?

Gary Orsborn, OD, MS, Global Head, Post-Market Clinical Studies, CooperVision, Inc.

Reference

1. Gomes JAP, Azar DT, Baudouin C, et al. TFOS DEWS II iatrogenic report. Ocul Surf. 2017 Jul;15:511-538.

IN MEMORIAM

I feel compelled to write on the loss of Art Epstein. Over the years, Art and I had great relationship, then a difficult relationship, then a cordial and respectful relationship. A battle over Board Certification can do that to a relationship. While we at times disagreed on important issues facing the profession, we both knew that the other always came to these disagreements from the same place—a love for our profession. I will miss our discussions, but I miss Art the person even more. There is a lesson on principled disagreement in there somewhere, I guess. We are better off for having had him in optometry, and less well-off for having lost him.

Clarke D. Newman, OD