New Solution for Former Lens Wearers
If you’ve blinked and sneezed and dabbed your eyes while trying to adapt to contact lenses, then glumly resumed wearing eyeglasses, you’ll like the results of a new study.
More than 80% of contact lens “dropouts” returned to lenses at least part time, usually after switching to another type of lens or another cleaning fluid, Los Angeles optometrist Jay Schlanger found in a recent study.
He recruited 199 dropouts--all residents of smoggy, allergen-ridden Los Angeles--and 149 of them completed the study.
Easiest to remedy was discomfort, a problem for 71% of the dropouts. One route to relief was simply to change wearers to different cleaning and disinfection solutions. “A lot of people are allergic to the chemicals found in contact lens solutions, particularly in Los Angeles,” Schlanger says. “The smog and the chemicals in the air sensitize people so much that one more chemical (in the solutions) can set off the allergic reaction.”
Cleaning solutions that worked well when lens wearers lived in more humid or less smoggy environments might not work well here, he says.
Or, he would try another type of lens.
“A lot of these people had only tried one type of lens,” Schlanger says. Often, even an experienced eye doctor cannot determine the best lens type on the first try, Schlanger says. “Ideally, doctors should have many designs to choose from, not limit themselves to the lenses offered by a single manufacturer.”
The No. 2 problem among the dropouts was insufficient vision correction, cited by 20% of the former lens wearers. Most had astigmatism and simply needed a new lens type. Most did well, Schlanger says, with the toric lens, specially designed to correct the blurred vision.
For 9% of dropouts, the problems were the expense of lenses or the hassles of cleaning and disinfecting routines. Not much could be done about the fees, but Schlanger switched some to disposable lenses or “frequent replacement” lenses, which require less maintenance and are discarded after a few months. Or, he recommended cleaning and disinfecting solutions that required fewer steps or less time or were otherwise easier to use.
A concept called “lifestyle fitting” can also help increase the chances of successful adjustment, Schlanger and others say. An eye doctor should not just take measurements to determine the best type of contact lens, but should ask a patient what he or she does for a living and where. Close work? A dry environment? Dusty? Asking what patients do in their spare time can also help a doctor pick the best lens.
Schlanger often fits one type of contact lens on one eye and another type on the other eye. “I tell patients to try them both for a week.” Then they can easily decide which lens feels and works better.
“If you have trouble reading the stock market report, for instance, take it in to the doctor,” he says.
“It’s the concept of picking the right lens for the right lifestyle,” says Lynda Baker, a member of the Contact Lens Manufacturers Assn. Of course, keeping lenses comfortable isn’t just the responsibility of the eye doctor, Baker points out. It’s important, she says, to follow recommendations for cleaning and replacement of lenses. In that area, she says, “the majority of us are abusers.”
