Contact lens wearers are all idiots!

There, he said it!

A series of recent encounters with contact lens wearers coming to us for the first time has led our optometrist, Dr. Euan McGinty, to this conclusion, shall we find out why?

Dr. McGinty writes:-

The eye is perhaps the most exquisitely sensitive organ in the body, one which provides information that we are highly dependent upon.  Lets take some cold hard facts - 40% of all nerve fibres connected to the brain are linked to the retina.  More of our neurons are dedicated to vision than the four other senses combined.  When our eyes are open, vision accounts for two thirds of the electrical activity in our brain.

There's no denying it, we like to see!

Contact lenses can be a great way to correct our vision and we now have options available to cover most prescriptions and eye-curvatures.

Over the years I have been practicing as an optometrist, perhaps the best single factor in contact lens development has been the move disposable contact lenses.  Compared to years ago, the frequent disposal of contact lenses has dramatically reduced the number of complications I see day-to-day related to the wear of contact lenses.

Disposable lenses are much safer

Studies have shown the compliance with proper contact lens care improves dramatically with the use of disposable lenses and, by a long margin, the best regime is single-use daily disposable lenses.

I was recently discussing this with a contact lens patient who we were refitting with new lenses.  This person had been running in to problems with discomfort, red eyes and variable vision with his regular contact lens regime.

As we discussed all of the options, two things became apparent - firstly, that the idea of single-use daily disposable lenses was something this patient was very keen on and; secondly, that although the current lenses being used were monthly disposable lenses, these had routinely been used for in excess of a month.

Let's make one thing clear, daily lenses are to be used for one day, two-weekly lenses for two weeks and monthly lenses for one month.  That's from when you open the packet until you throw them away, it is not two-weeks' or a month of "wears".

There was no doubt that a lot of issues had arisen for this patient due to the poor contact lens regime and that sorting out the routine, in terms of lens renewal, hygiene and cleaning and also ensuring a good contact lens fit would resolve a lot of the issues.

We really were tempted to switch out to a single-use daily disposable lens, for him the fresh-lens comfort every day was great and for me the excellent safety profile was highly desirable.

The stumbling point? 

Price.

This then caused quite a moment of humour as we realised that purchasing daily disposable lenses would be a third less in cost compared to the cup of coffee that he had come in with and that he picks up every day.  The difference is that you don't buy a year's worth of coffee all in one transaction.

He'd never thought about it in those terms, however, with a bit of perspective it became apparent that great vision and healthy eyes were at least as important as his daily cup of Joe.

If you hear hooves, don't think of zebras

The second encounter which really led me to the conclusion that all contact lens wearers are idiots was a lady who was scheduled for an eye examination.  She contacted us on the day of the eye examination to cancel and reschedule, she had a red-eye.  We suggested that this would be an ideal time to see her optometrist, however, for whatever reason, she didn't want to do so.

I then saw her two weeks later.  We were chatting about her eyes and her recent red eye, she was quite frustrated by it.  She was sure that there must have been a faulty contact lens, or an issue with her solutions.  She had just opened up a new set of lenses and put them in, so they must be to blame.  She stopped wearing them, used some over the counter antibiotic eye drops and it had eventually resolved.  So, in her mind, it was definitely the contact lens's fault.

I examined her eyes and noticed a corneal scar in her eye that had been the affected one.  In my assessment this had been a recent corneal ulcer and she was fortunate that it had resolved, as they have the potential to be quite damaging, especially when associated with contact lens wear.

I discussed my findings and again we went through the lead up to the red-eye to see if we could tease out what had gone wrong.  It was only at this point that it turned out that this patient had slept in the contact lenses and worn them for almost 48 hours straight - something they were never intended for!

We like to have cause and effect, and somewhere to lay the blame.  In this patient's opinion it was the new contact lens which had caused the issue.

This was a contact lens which, until it was opened, had been in sterile packaging.

This was a contact lens which then had been used inappropriately.

I politely suggested that this may not have been the contact lens which had caused the issue, however, it was much more likely to have been caused through "user-error"!

Okay, maybe not all contact lens wearers

These are just two stories of recent encounters which reminded me again how much we take our eyes and vision for granted ... until something goes wrong.  There is no doubt that there are many successful contact lens wearers who run in to no problems whatsoever.

I'll admit it, of course not all contact lens wearers are idiots, but there are some things we should think about.

It doesn't really matter if you believe in all-powerful being, in evolution, or in some other explanation of how we got here, if we were meant to have contact lenses in our eyes, we would have.  We don't!  Contact lenses are a foreign body, to our eyes, they're not meant to be there.

Therefore, when we wear contact lenses, we have to accept we are increasing the risks of having something adverse happen to our eyes.  We need to ensure that we follow simple care steps to make it as safe as possible.

Preferably we should look at single -use daily disposable lenses.

Even with all of these steps, things can go wrong, a recent news story on the BBC website highlighted this: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-32797394

More information about our contact lenses can be found on our website here: http://www.oceanoptometry.ca/index.php/the-collections/the-contacts-collections

New York / Vision East Expo Day 2

Phew, we made it!

That was our immediate thought on arriving in New York, but now the sun is rising on our first day and we have something which is a little strange to us all, some free time!  What to do?  There were many different options.  Should we just have a fun day seeing the sights and soaking up the atmosphere of The Big Apple (of course this would really be work as a staff bonding exercise and a review of the levels of service provided by various outlets which we may visit - honest).  Perhaps we should try to see our suppliers early or even we could visit other optometry and optical offices in the city and do a little covert research.

In the end a compromise was reached, we'd do some sightseeing in the morning and in the afternoon Dr McGinty and Dr Wilson would go to a continuing education symposium.

Times Square

So we headed out from the Yotel to Times Square, looking to find a suitable establishment for breakfast.  This time of the morning is always a great time in any of the global hubs.  The city feels not quite awake, like it's slowly sipping a coffee and gently opening its eyes.

A great time to see the workers hurrying to get to their place of work, to see shops and offices sleepily opening up, cabs crawling around hopefully looking for fares which are thin on the ground.

You also get to see things without being surrounded by crowds of tourists, it's like a private moment with the city.  We got to Times Square at around 7.30am and although it was cold and grey, the lights of the advertising boards were blazing, crying out their messages to an empty audience.  We stop for just a moment to take it all in, it's all very surreal as it feels like we've really stolen a moment from time - we are starting to hear the news reports from home - school and business closures ahead of the storm, weather warnings as the storm starts to move through the province.

With breakfast taken care of in a friendly diner, we decided that the best way to tackle the sightseeing would be an open-top bus tour.  This would allow us to get a real overview of the city in the few hours that we had.  We choose our company, bought our tickets and when the bus arrived found our way to the top.

Looking down 7th Ave

With a slightly raised view and a great tour guide on the bus, although we felt like tourists, it was great to hear the stories and take in the scenes.

It's not our first time in New York, all of us have visited before, but it's a fun way to spend some time with friends who are also colleagues, in an environment which is not our normal one.

Despite the chill weather we also know that we are not suffering anything like the storm that is now landing on Nova Scotia.  There are definite wind blowing here, but as we speak to family and to Mike, who is holding fort at Ocean, we realise how lucky we are to have made the decision to get away ahead of the storm.  What a winter it's been and we really have escaped what seems to have been the really big storm of the season.  So help you understand just how we are empathising, here's a few more photos from New York!

Empire State Building

This is the new World Trade Center.  The tower on the left with the spire is actually the tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere, although the angle of the photo doesn't show it.  We loved the mix with the old church in the foreground and these utterly modern buildings behind.  Don't be fooled by the blue sky, it was all terribly hard work and we were suffering for you to get these photographs as it was bitterly cold.  Honest.

We wrap up the end of the tour with a walk from the Rockefeller Center to Central Park, down 5th Avenue.  So many iconic names and buildings just filling us to the brim with New York buzz.  It's time for our party to split up, though.  Our Docs, John & Euan were going to go to the international contact lens symposium - a world's first; and Erin was going to enjoy some fine artwork at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The afternoon's continuing education was a great opportunity just to make sure we are completely up to speed with current trends and thinking in the contact lens world.  There is always additional knowledge and development to be gained in optometry and this gift day provided an unexpected opportunity for Euan and John to do just that.  The room was well set with some high-brow lecturers and they both enjoyed the various topics covered, especially the final panel debate between three speakers covering the different options for lens modalities (daily V's two-weekly V's monthly lens disposal).

In particular our Docs were really pleased to hear Nick Rumney give an overview of current contact lenses as Nick was a tutor of Euan's at Cardiff University.  It was also great to listen to what Dr Justin Bazan from Brooklyn had to share with the symposium on social media and its use within the modern optometry office and in particular in relation to contact lenses.

Erin, in the meantime, headed for a walk further up Central Park to the Met.  This is not her first visit to the Met, but it provides a rare opportunity for Erin to really soak up the atmosphere of the museum at her own pace.  There are so many wonderful exhibits spanning a massive timeline throughout history it is hardly surprising that this is the largest collection of art in the United States.  We'll add some photos when we have selected just the right ones, after all it's not like we have almost seven hundred to sift through to find just the right ones!

In the evening the group of friends re-convened to share their experiences, swap stories and tell tales.  All in all it has been a wonderful day, a real gift given to us.  Nova Scotia ended up being battered by blizzards, sure enough, so we made the right decision to get away early.

That evening we had a wonderful Indian meal.