Unfortunately, patients will choose to drop out of contact lens wear for various reasons. Eyecare practitioners can control and/or improve some of those reasons if we know the concerns ahead of time. Often, patients never say anything and drop out silently. Those are obviously the toughest lost opportunities because their concerns were never identified and addressed before their decision to drop out.

Be proactive in identifying possible concerns by asking the right questions. This will provide more insight into a patient’s contact lens-wearing experience and potentially identify trouble spots. Many patients do not like to complain and will not offer this information without prompting. To start, consider these questions:

1. At what time do you take out your contact lenses? Why (if earlier than you expect)?

2. At what time do your lenses start feeling dry?

3. At what time of the day do you start to experience blurry or fluctuating vision

4. Are you using any strategies (like artificial tears, blinking, or rubbing eyes) to help get you through the contact lens-wearing day?

After asking the probing questions about contact lens wear, offer an upgrade. Patients want to hear from their eyecare professional, especially if there is something that may help their eyesight or their contact lens wearing experience. Let patients know of potential innovations in their specific visual category (spherical, astigmatism, presbyopic, etc.). If practitioners don’t tell them, someone else will.

Obviously eyecare providers cannot prevent every dropout, but it is worth the fight. Contact lens dropouts are painful to their eyecare business and their patients. Patients do not want to drop out, but they lose faith in their lenses’ ability to satisfy their visual needs. Address every contact lens wearer as a potential dropout and develop a strategy to proactively prevent them.

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