How Two Florida ODs Can Fit Even More Contact Lens Patients

DRS. KAREN AND James Hoffman of Orange Park Eye Center in Orange Park, FL recently shared how adding a new contact lens technology — Bausch + Lomb’s Revive — has allowed them to fit a greater range of patients, many of whom had been told their prescriptions didn’t allow them to wear contacts.

THE IDEA

Walking into an exam room, Dr. Karen Hoffman says she often feels a bit like Forrest Gump: “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” She sees a wide variety of eyes from patients with healthy corneas to complicated pathologies. And while there are many amazing lens options available, what do you do when your patient doesn’t fit existing molds or parameters? “What if a patient has an extremely steep or flat cornea, a strong Rx or astigmatism and presbyopia that goes beyond standard lens offerings?” Orange Park Eye Center needed a lens that would bridge the gap between available soft CLs and more complicated specialty lenses, she says. “One that would be straightforward to fit, give us reliable results and be manufactured in a reasonable amount of time.”

THE EXECUTION

Revive CLs have given the practice that missing puzzle piece. Dr. Jim Hoffman, Dr. Karen’s colleague (and husband), recently examined a patient who always struggled with her XR lenses. Inconsistent lens rotation led to the patient complaining of intermittent blur. Says Dr. Jim, “Her comment of ‘I know this is the best you can do,’ inspired me to suggest Bausch + Lomb. I felt they had finally improved custom soft contact lenses with Revive.” He believed the lenses’ dual elliptical stabilization would improve her wearing experience. Her spectacle Rx of OD +1.00-2.75×020, OS +3.00-5.00×180 with flat corneas (OD 40.00 and OS 40.50) had always made her CL Rx a challenge. “Upon insertion of Revive … her vision was so clear her smile was unforgettable,” he says. A stable fit was made possible with a base curve adjustable in 0.1 mm steps, while cylinder power in every 0.25 power up to 10.00D in 1-degree steps made her fitting exact.

Dr. Karen adds: “Patients with high astigmatism are often concerned about lens rotation. This is where the dual elliptical stabilization shines.” To explain this concept to patients, “I like to use the analogy of standing with your feet together and being pushed; you are less stable and more likely lose your balance versus standing with your feet shoulder width apart.”

One of her patients, a busy teacher and mom having visual difficulty with her daily activities due to poor vision as well as lens rotation, for whom several custom soft CLs hadn’t worked, was so happy with the stability of Revive that Dr. Karen ended up taking the leap to multifocal optics instead of monovision.

“Multifocal optics are available and customizable with Revive. This patient is now able to complete her daily activities without having to compromise.”

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THE REWARDS

According to Dr. Jim, Orange Park has found Revive technology to be dependable, praising its successful results without a steep learning curve as an asset to patient care.

Revive’s wide range of parameters gives it an advantage, he says. “Because previous ‘extra range’ soft lenses were difficult to fit and unreliable, I often told patients, ‘There are not CLs made in your Rx, so you are stuck in glasses.’ I felt like our profession and the contact lens industry were letting the patient down.” Fittings such as the one described above have inspired him to offer CLs to more patients who have tried lenses in the past but were unsuccessful or have been told that glasses are their only option.

“That is rewarding patients, me and our practice.”