This article was originally published in a sponsored newsletter.

Our visual world can be challenging, especially if you are a contact lens-wearing presbyope. Most multifocal contact lenses do not solve 100% of a person’s visual needs. Part-time wear of any contact lenses may be perceived as a failure, but many presbyopic patients are perfectly fine with part-time contact lens wear. There are many reasons for this.

Many patients may be working from home some days and prefer to wear their progressive addition lenses or computer prescription glasses while at home and working from a computer. Additionally, many patients may choose to wear their contact lenses for specific tasks, like outdoor activities. Either way, consider taking a different perspective to part-time multifocal contact lens wearers.

Daily disposable multifocal contact lenses make part-time wear even more convenient and attractive. With daily disposable lenses, patients can choose to wear their lenses exactly when they prefer. This may be full-time if they choose, but consider these steps when focusing on growing part-time wearers for presbyopia:

1. Offer contact lenses to every potential contact lens wearing candidate.  Presbyopia is not easy (I can attest!) and patients are always looking for a variety of solutions that range from glasses to contact lenses to surgery to eye drops to anything. From my experience, many patients who have never worn contact lenses prior to presbyopia do not believe they can wear them or never even put much thought into wearing them. Let them know that they are an excellent candidate for contact lenses, even if they want to wear them part time.
   
   
2. Let them know that multifocal daily disposable contact lenses are not perfect.  Tell patients that these lenses will not provide the same vision that they had when they were younger, but the lenses will work well for 90% of their visual tasks. This leads into the part-time discussion. I let them know that “new daily disposable multifocal contact lenses are custom fit to their visual needs,” but they can choose to wear them whenever they like. Daily disposable lenses offer the highest convenience and flexibility for wear.
   
   
3. Staff training.  Staff will be a very important part of the fitting process. They will need to be able to help with the application and removal training along with ensuring that there are enough trial lenses in stock with a variety of multifocal contact lenses as each design has unique features that may help solve a specific visual need for the patient. Additionally, staff will be critical when troubleshooting follow-up appointments and phone calls.

Part-time contact lens wear is a successful fit. Don’t be shy about that fact and even consider focusing on ways to grow that population. This does not mean turning a full-time wearer into a part-time wearer; this means focusing on growing part-time wearers from non-wearers.