CLToday Fitting Tip of the Month

January 2004

Contact Lenses Today® is edited by Dr. Joseph T. Barr and the staff of Contact Lens Spectrum.

Optimizing First-Fit Bifocal Soft CLs
The number-one key to success with bifocal soft contact lenses is establishing realistic expectations. The number-two key is to use add powers no stronger than you need and to use unequal adds, with the dominant eye getting a weaker add. Both approaches interefere less with distance vision, allowing greater chance of first-fit success.

For patients needing adds of +1.50 or less, try the lowest add power option in each eye. When higher adds are needed, use the required add in the nondominant eye (still rounding down to the next weakest add if the power falls between available adds), and one step weaker add power in the dominant eye.
--Neil A. Pence, OD, FAAO
Columbus, Ind.

Manage Patient Expectations and Vision at First Fit
Ensure successful fits by counseling your presbyopic patients that fitting bifocal lenses is a process. You may want to remind your patients that it is important to try the lenses in their own environment before making modifications. Let them know that multifocal vision will always require a balance between near and far.
ACUVUE Brand BIFOCAL Contact Lenses -- Fit successfully into your practice.
http://www.acuvue.com.
--ADVERTISING

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