How often do you use the “Pepsi challenge” when fitting patients in contact lenses? I have heard many passionate arguments both for and against this approach. Some feel there is no “doctoring” when allowing the patient that much influence in the fitting process. Others argue that the patient’s subjective input can make or break their success in wearing contact lenses so why not use this approach. Let us know what you think—please drop us a note at cltoday@pentavisionmedia.com.

Brien Holden Vision Pty Ltd. (BHV) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted clearance for its Extended Depth of Focus (EDOF) contact lenses, a world first for the correction of presbyopia.

According to the company, many claims that multifocal contact lenses provide simultaneous vision at various visual distances often come at the cost of reduced contrast, increased ghosting and compromised overall vision satisfaction, and these shortcomings are often exacerbated with low illumination levels. BHV says that the company’s new generation of EDOF contact lenses uses higher order aberrations to optimize retinal image quality over a wide range of distances from far to near while minimizing ghosting and haloes. Further, the EDOF contact lenses perform relatively independent of a patient’s natural aberrations and variation in pupil size.

In 2013, the Institute announced the spin-off of Brien Holden Vision, a commercial subsidiary that provides a pathway for advanced and beneficial products and services for those in need of vision correction. This will be the first BHV product brought to the market by the spin-off company. BHV will donate a substantial part of its profits to fund the work of the Institute.

The contact lenses, designed to meet the vision needs of emerging presbyopes, as well as middle-aged and older people, are expected to be available at the end of 2015.

Visionary Optics announced the addition of the Europa Scleral Lens Virtual Troubleshooting Guide to the company’s website. The Guide provides immediate answers any time of the day to the most common questions on modifications of the Europa Scleral lens, and includes streamlined options to email the Consultation Department and order lenses directly through the website. View the Virtual Troubleshooting Guide by visiting www.visionary-optics.com/support/virtual-troubleshooting-guide-europa.

Art Optical announced the availability of DreamLens, a proven, 4-zone reverse geometry design for overnight orthokeratology and myopia management. DreamLens is an FDA-approved design option, using the Bausch + Lomb Vision Shaping Treatment (VST) process, that is indicated for the temporary reduction of up to 5.00 diopters of myopia in eyes with 1.50 diopters or less of corneal astigmatism.

The DreamLens VST process features an advanced proprietary software program that analyzes topographical data, aids in initial lens selection and simplifies the fitting and ordering process. Utilizing the DreamLens design software, ECPs achieve first-fit success rates as high as 90% without the use of diagnostic lenses, according to DreamLens President, Dr. Thomas Reim. The web-based program allows practitioners the freedom to change any parameter, anytime, giving them complete control of the design.

Falling in line with their high service standards, DreamLenses from Art Optical will be competitively priced, backed by a guaranteed fit program and manufactured and shipped within 24 hours of order. As with all FDA-approved corneal reshaping designs, DreamLens training and certification is required prior to prescribing. Additional information can be found at the company website, www.artoptical.com, or by contacting Art Optical at 1-800-253-9364.

The American Optometric Association (AOA) and Optometry Cares-The AOA Foundation congratulate three AOA member doctors of optometry who have been selected into the prestigious National Optometry Hall of Fame. Since 1998, the National Optometry Hall of Fame, administered by Optometry Cares, has recognized and honored optometrists who have made significant and long-lasting contributions to the optometric profession.

The 2015 inductees are:

Paul C. Ajamian, OD, of Georgia. Dr. Ajamian is co-founder of the nation's first optometric co-management and referral center, Omni Eye Services of Atlanta. Upon graduating from the New England College of Optometry, he became one of the first optometrists to participate in a post-graduate fellowship program at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (BPEI) in Miami, Florida. He was awarded the AOA's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, in 2014. Read more.

Kenji Hamada, OD, of Oregon. Dr. Hamada began his career in the U.S. Army, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, serving as captain and chief optometrist, earning the Meritorious Service Award. He has received the Young Optometrist of the Year Award, Optometrist of the Year Award and President's Award (earned three times) from the Oregon Optometric Physicians Association and the 2001 National Distinguished Service Award from the AOA. Dr. Hamada was also inducted into the National Academies of Practice as a Distinguished Practitioner in Optometry in 2000. Read more.

Earl L. Smith III, OD, PhD, of Texas. Professor Smith serves on the faculty of the University of Houston College of Optometry. He currently holds the Greeman-Petty Professorship in Vision Development and serves as the interim chief health officer of the University of Houston Amoco. He received the Educator of the Year Award from the Texas Optometric Association in 2003 and Optometrist of the Year Award in 2009. Read more.

The inductees will be honored at a ceremony and reception on June 25, as part of Optometry's Meeting, at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, Washington.

The International Association of Contact Lens Educators has announced the winners of the 2015 IACLE Contact Lens Educator of the Year Awards to recognize and reward achievement in contact lens education worldwide. Supported by the British Contact Lens Association (BCLA) and sponsored by CooperVision, three awards will be presented, one from each of IACLE’s three global regions.

IACLE Asia Pacific Contact Lens Educator of the Year: Professor Monica Chaudhry
Monica has almost 25 years of academic and clinical experience. Prior to joining the Amity University Gurgaon, India, where she is Head of Optometry and Vision Science, she served at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Monica has won several prestigious awards and is currently the Chairman of the Optometry Council of India.

IACLE Americas Contact Lens Educator of the Year: Martín Giraldo
Martín qualified as an optometrist at La Salle University, Colombia, where he holds the post of Candidate Magister in Vision Science. He is currently Coordinator of the Specialization in Anterior Segment and Contact Lens at Santo Tomâs University, Colombia. Martin also teaches at courses and congresses in Colombia, Perú, Ecuador, Argentina and Venezuela.

IACLE Europe / Africa – Middle East Contact Lens Educator of the Year: Helmer Schweizer
Helmer is a trained optometrist (Germany) specializing in contact lenses and has held positions in industry including professional affairs and R&D roles. He is president of the industry body Euromcontact and chairman of the European Contact Lens Forum. Helmer also teaches at the schools of optometry in Novi Sad (Serbia) and Velika Gorica (Croatia).

The awards will be presented at a special IACLE Session at the BCLA’s Clinical Conference & Exhibition in Liverpool, UK. The Third IACLE World Congress on Contact Lens Education will be held at The University of Manchester from May 24-28 to coincide with the conference.

A long time GP-wearing patient of mine who drops in every couple of years presented with complaints of poor vision and uncomfortable contact lenses. Upon inspection with fluorescein and Burton lamp, I saw heavy deposits on the peripheral curve of the lenses. This looked like years of deposits on these lenses, not just a year or two. Evaluation of these contact lenses with the radiuscope revealed that both lenses were very warped. As any OD would do, I sent these lenses to the trash. New GP lenses were ordered and the patient was instructed to wear his glasses until the new contact lenses arrive.

We thank Dr. Ng for the image and we welcome photo submissions from our other readers! It is easy to submit a photo for consideration for publishing in Contact Lenses Today. Simply visit http://www.cltoday.com/upload/upload.aspx to upload your image. Please include an explanation of the photo and your full name, degree or title and city/state/country.

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A Solution to Material Comfort

Many of us want our contact lens patients to be slam dunks year in and year out. We never want our patients unhappy with their lenses. When a patient is uncomfortable, generally there is a compromise to the ocular surface, either because of dry eye or because something foreign is altering the ocular surface to make our patients uncomfortable. The start to my contact lens questions to my patient after I hear about comfort issues is: Was this a problem when you first started wearing the lenses? If they answer in the negative, then I know something has changed. Before switching their lens material, don't forget to ask about solutions. As we all have learned, some materials do better with certain solutions than others and if your patients has switched solutions recently, their lens may be behaving in another manner. Which brings us back to the ever-clever statement that sometimes that problem is the solution and by switching a patient back into their habitual solution (that they were using months ago), they may find that the comfort returns. A couple tips: have a patient start the process with a new lens when you do this; make sure to see them back to confirm the comfort. If the solution wasn't the problem, then blame the ocular surface.

Words of Wisdom from an Elder Statesman

I read with interest the abstract recently reported in Contact Lenses Today, “Microbial Bioburden of Orthokeratology Contact Lens Care System.”¹ In this study out of Taiwan, the authors found that young, male patients were quite noncompliant with the care and storage of their overnight orthokeratology gas permeable (GP) contact lenses (and the young female patients weren’t perfect, either).

A couple of days after reading the abstract, one of my long-term contact lens patients reported for his annual visit. At 95 years of age, Mr. L. has been wearing GP lenses (and PMMAs before them) for longer than most of us have been alive. It is no coincidence that he has hardly experienced a contact lens-related complication in all of those years. After I commended him on cleaning and disinfecting his contact lenses exactly as instructed, he stated, “I try to do what the doctors tell me to do. You know, it helps.”

1. Lo J, Kuo MT, Chien CC et al. Microbial bioburden of orthokeratology contact lens care system. Eye Contact Lens 2015;Feb.26. [Epub ahead of print]

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Presbyopia is an age-related eye condition where one of the signs is the reduction in the amplitude of accommodation, resulting in the loss of ability to change the eye's focus from far to near. It is the most common age-related ailments affecting everyone around their mid-40s. Methods for the correction of presbyopia include contact lens and spectacle options but the surgical correction of presbyopia still remains a significant challenge for refractive surgeons. Surgical strategies for dealing with presbyopia may be extraocular (corneal or scleral) or intraocular (removal and replacement of the crystalline lens or some type of treatment on the crystalline lens itself). There are however a number of limitations and considerations that have limited the widespread acceptance of surgical correction of presbyopia. Each surgical strategy presents its own unique set of advantages and disadvantages. For example, lens removal and replacement with an intraocular lens may not be preferable in a young patient with presbyopia without a refractive error. Similarly treatment on the crystalline lens may not be a suitable choice for a patient with early signs of cataract. This article is a review of the options available and those that are in development stages and are likely to be available in the near future for the surgical correction of presbyopia.

Gil-Cazorla R, Shah S, Naroo SA. A review of the surgical options for the correction of presbyopia. Br J Ophthalmol. 2015 Apr 23. pii: bjophthalmol-2015-306663. doi: 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2015-306663. [Epub ahead of print]

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