Essential Contact Lens Practice
A comprehensive guide to the foundations of contact lens practice, brought to you by the Johnson & Johnson Institute.
The Johnson & Johnson Institute provides education, coaching, development, and advocacy for those on the frontlines of health – focused on advancing the safe and effective use of our products. Together with healthcare professionals around the world, we share the same goal: to deliver the best and most compassionate care to people everywhere.
About this book
Just as the world around us continues to evolve, so too does the contact lens world, and the technologies available to us as Eye Care Professionals to help us to better serve our patients’ changing needs.
With over 10 years having elapsed since the publication of the last edition of the Essential Contact Lens Series, by Jane Veys, John Meyler and Ian Davies, an update was necessary. Whilst many of the fundamentals of contact lens practice remain unchanged, significant advances in technology, contact lens materials and designs offer new opportunities to Eye Care Professionals.
Research continues to shape our understanding of vision, the ocular surface and contact lens practice, therefore references have been updated throughout. Numerous authors with a wide breath of experience from high street practice, through to academia and industry, were involved in bringing this text up to date.
Initial Patient Discussion
A proactive approach, combined with a comprehensive patient assessment and consideration of key factors such as expectations, motivations, symptoms and physiological conditions can significantly improve success rates with contact lens wear. This article outlines questioning techniques to uncover patient needs, in addition to the baseline measurements and observations required before contact lens wear commences.
Initial Examination Part 1 - Refraction & Corneal Assessment
The process of contact lens fitting requires comprehensive clinical assessment of the patient, including evaluation of refractive requirements along with a series of additional anterior eye measurements, together with assessment of corneal contour. This information, in conjunction with consideration of the patient needs and an anterior eye health assessment, will contribute to determining the ideal lens choice for each individual patient.
Initial Examination Part 1 - Slit Lamp Examination
The slit lamp examination is arguably the most important aspect of contact lens practice, both for judging the potential of a prospective lens wearer and monitoring the established wearer. This article examines slit-lamp features, techniques and provides recommendations for patient examination, including routine and grading.
Assessment of the Tear Film
A stable tear film is a critical pre-requisite to successful contact lens wear and understanding the status of the tear film is a key component of both initial fitting and lens aftercare. This article reviews the structure of the tear film and provides details of the techniques that can be used to assess it in contact lens practice.
Contact Lens Selection
This article uses patient examples to explore the contact lens selection decision making process, with the aim to ensure we are making personalised contact lens recommendations for each of our patients based not only on their contact lens requirements, but also on their ocular health.
Soft Contact Lens Fitting
This article describes the characteristics of the ideal soft contact lens fit and the consequences of poorly fitting lenses. It goes on to review the techniques that can be used to assess soft contact lens fitting and provides practical tips on what can be done to alleviate a number of adverse signs and symptoms caused by poorly fitting lenses.
Soft Toric Contact Lens Fitting
With over 30% of the potential contact lens requiring astigmatic correction, an understanding of the efficient and effective fitting of toric lenses is critical to a successful contact lens practice. This article reviews the design options for toric lenses and then provides a practical guide to the fitting and aftercare.
Contact Lens Aftercare
Comprehensive aftercare is an essential part of successful contact lens practice. This article provides a practical guide to the establishment of an effective and efficient routine including the importance of questioning techniques. The article also provides tables and flow charts that help the practitioner manage both common and infrequent signs and symptoms in a practical way.
