More patients can benefit from customized contacts, speaker says

LAS VEGAS – Robert Davis, OD, told attendees here at the Global Contact Lens Forum that those patients who see 20/20 but do not have crisp vision can be treated with customized contact lenses.

Davis explained at the forum, which was held in conjunction with Vision Expo West, that a customized lens will have 0.1-D power options vs. the traditional 0.25-D steps for spheres and cylinder and will have cylinder axes in 1-degree increments.

“Right now we’re fitting about 25% of patients with astigmatism, but by customizing lenses we have an opportunity to increase this to 40%,” Davis said.

Contact lens experts Caroline and Andre forecast that as many of 50% of patients would benefit from ordering customized lenses, he said.

Patients who complain of glare at night have different central zone thickness and optic zone options, Davis said.

“We can now design lenses with larger optic zones to address this anomaly,” he said.

Customized lenses can be applied in cases of high cylinder, high spheres, presbyopia (to specify zone sizes), myopia stabilization, corneal ectasia, multifocals, toric multifocals and postsurgery.

“There’s tremendous fluctuation in vision with toric lenses,” Davis said. “Torics can be fit more accurately with customized base curves, diameters and powers.”

Davis said myopia stabilization is another area where customized lenses can be used.

“Myopia increases a patient’s risk for glaucoma, retinal holes and tears, vitreous detachments, cataracts, lattice degeneration and lacquer cracks,” he said. “By keeping patients’ myopia under 8 D we can help protect them against such conditions.” - Nancy Hemphill, ELS

Disclosure: Davis is a consultant to the Brien Holden Vision Institute, Special Eyes and SynergEyes.