CLToday Fitting Tip of the Month

May 2007

Contact Lenses Today® is edited by Dr. Joseph T. Barr and the staff of Contact Lens Spectrum. This week, CLToday® reaches more than 10,000 readers in 74 countries.

Managing Allergy and Contact Lens Wear
When dealing with your contact lens patients affected by ocular allergies, don’t be afraid to use daily disposable lenses in conjunction with a topical antihistamine/mast cell-stabilizer medication as part of your arsenal in minimizing/alleviating symptoms.
    With most currently available antihistamine/mast cell-stabilizer combinations (both prescription and OTC) being twice-a-day treatments, a patient can conveniently instill these drops prior to inserting, and after removing, their lenses. Using a daily disposal lens not only provides patients a clean, fresh lens everyday, it offers the freedom to instill an additional dose of the anti-allergy drop during the middle of the day without significantly affecting the lens.
    An additional option is to consider part-time wear of daily disposable lenses (in substitution of a patient’s normal, frequent-replacement lens) during peak allergy seasons if lens cost is an issue for your patient.
Jason Chin, O.D.,
Boston.
Dryness = Dropouts
What effect does contact lens dryness have in your contact lens practice? Of the 31 million soft contact lens wearers, 21 million, or 67%, self-report that eyes feel dry during contact lens wear. There are nearly 2.7 million contact lens dropouts annually. Many of these dropouts say dryness was a major reason for discontinuing lens wear. Offering patients ACUVUE® OASYS™ Brand Contact Lenses with HYDRACLEAR™ Plus, a lens designed to meet the demands of contact lens wearers in environments that can make eyes feel tired and dry, can keep patients wearing their contact lenses longer and boost your contact lens practice.
--ADVERTISING
Report adverse contact lens reactions here: http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/ or call (800) FDA-1088.
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