CLINICAL

  CONTACT LENSES

GET STARTED IN MULTIFOCALS

FOCUS ON WHAT THESE CONTACT LENSES CAN DO FOR YOUR PATIENTS

JASON R. MILLER, O.D., M.B.A., F.A.A.O.

THE MULTIFOCAL contact lens market is ripe and ready for the picking. The number of Americans age 40 and older increases every year, according to Census Bureau data. (I am now officially part of this market.) This patient demographic, encompassing the age range in which presbyopia noticeably manifests, has tremendous spending power and will make educated decisions on those purchases.

Here, I will focus on how to introduce multifocal contact lenses to patients and keep up with the innovations in this market.

DISCUSS THE BENEFITS

Let’s get a few things out in the open, right off the bat. Do multifocal contact lenses work for everyone? No. Is vision through multifocal contact lenses as sharp as glasses? No.

Now, let’s spend the rest of the column focusing on what multifocal contact lenses can do. Explain this to your patients in one sentence, “Multifocal contact lenses can provide you with good vision for about 90% of your visual tasks throughout the day.”

At this point, many patients ask how the technology works. Specifically, they want to know whether they need to look through their lenses in a particular manner to see near. I don’t think many patients will understand “aspheric optics” or “simultaneous vision,” so instead, explain “brain adaptation.”

I use lens illustrations to explain brain adaptation to multifocal contact lenses.
Courtesy of Echo by Eyemaginations

To do this, I display a picture of the generic technology design and show patients how their brains need a week or two of wear to adapt to this technology.

ACQUIRE THE NEEDED TOOLS

The number of multifocal contact lens options is rapidly growing. Multiple daily and re-usable multifocal options are available, and new entries are coming on board regularly from major contact lens manufacturers. As a result, it is important to have multiple tools in your bag. To acquire them, gain familiarity with every contact lens design. Manufacturers spend substantial time researching their contact lens and its market before launching the product. Utilize this information. For example, fitting guides are developed based on that research and are critical to the success of each contact lens. Following them increases your success rates and meets your patients’ needs.

MAKE THE OFFER

Consider this: In a survey of optical professionals who performed 105,734 contact lens fittings, there appeared to be a “significant under-prescribing of presbyopia-correcting contact lenses for those 45 years of age and older,” according to the January 2011 issue of Clinical and Experimental Optometry.

Take a proactive approach, and discuss multifocal technology with your patients. Improved designs, materials and modalities have created a wealth of options, so there is something for everyone, including part-time wearers and those who never thought they were contact lens candidates. OM

DR. MILLER is a partner at Eyecare Professionals of Powell, in Powell, Ohio, on the board of the Ohio Optometric Association and is an adjunct faculty member for The Ohio State University College of Optometry. To comment on this article, visit tinyurl.com/OMcomment.