A 42-YEAR-OLD FEMALE with a refractive error of –10.00 –2.00 x 180 OD and –9.00 –1.50 x 170 OS came into the practice wearing a monthly disposable silicone hydrogel contact lens. She explained that everything was awesome with her contact lenses and she absolutely loved them. When asked how many contact lenses she had remaining, she responded that she had two for the right eye and one for the left eye; one of her left lenses ripped, leaving her with a different number for each eye.

This patient could have easily been kept in the same contact lenses that she came in wearing that day for her visit. She didn’t have any complaints and she told me that she loved her contact lenses. When we do a deeper dive into the patient’s history, we realize that we can improve this patient experience with contemporary lenses.

IS THERE A BETTER OPTION?

Going one step further with this patient, we realized how detrimental running out of contact lenses was for her. She came in for her yearly visit 11 months after her last visit just to make sure that she never ran out of contact lenses. She described wearing her glasses as very difficult and felt that her vision was much sharper with her contact lenses.

We educated her on new contact lens options that were available. We discussed daily disposable silicone hydrogel lenses, for which she would be a candidate. We explained that she wouldn’t have to clean her lenses and that she would be able to put new clean lenses on her eyes every single day. We also told her that if she ripped a lens by accident, she would only be missing one day of lens supply as opposed to a month.

KEEPING HER IN THE SAME LENSES

Oftentimes, patients don’t know about the new technologies that are available, hence the need to educate patients on the newest technologies applicable to their unique needs and how they may improve their wearing experience.

In this instance, the benefit was more about convenience (not needing to clean her lenses) and the fact that she would have the opportunity to wear a fresh, new lens on a daily basis, and less about concerns that the lenses may tear. Additionally, her concerns about the environmental impact of disposing so many lenses were alleviated when we told her about the recycling program for contact lenses and blister packs.

THE VERDICT

Practitioner habits can be powerful. Challenge yourself and think about how to provide better, more contemporary treatments. Constantly making incremental changes often produces habits that are sustainable and can be built upon.

Think about new technological advances, not only in contact lens designs and materials that are being fit on patients, but also new diagnostic technologies that could help care for patients in a more efficient way and provide more information about the patients’ eyes.

If keeping things the same and not offering patients new technologies is the new norm, then we don’t want to be normal. CLS