WABI-SABI! Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic concept centered around the acceptance of impermanence, incompleteness, and imperfection. It is a celebration of things that are not flawless. You know, things like aged wood, wrinkled linen napkins, dried flowers, old books, and…contact lenses?!

Well, if you think about it, wabi-sabi is such a fitting concept in the world of contact lenses. Think about specialty contact lenses fitted on an irregular cornea or very dry eye. It’s infrequent to see specialty lenses fitted on a diseased eye that are flawless! We often accept some compromise in the fit (unless the contact lens is going to cause another complication) to get these patients feeling and seeing well.

Or, what about multifocal contact lenses? Think about that struggling presbyope who hates spectacles but is able to achieve good functional vision at all distances with a multifocal contact lens. Or that toric multifocal for the presbyopic patient who has significant astigmatism. Or that patient who has diplopia who can fuse with prism in their contact lenses.

Difficult situations or fits, for sure, but when successful, another wabi-sabi! It’s not often enough that we celebrate these contact lens successes in difficult situations. They can make a world of difference in our patients’ lives.