Dual contact lens, glasses prescribing ‘represents a significant opportunity’
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NEW YORK — Nearly a quarter of more than 2,000 contact lens and spectacle wearers surveyed said they wear both modalities to correct their vision, according to a report from the Contact Lens Institute presented at Vision Expo East.
“When we look at the glasses-only patients, 18% of them said they’d be interested in contact lenses if they knew about them. Those who wear contact lenses (18%) said they’d like to wear spectacles more often,” Contact Lens Institute (CLI) board chair Michelle Andrews, OD, said during a CLI-sponsored event. “More than one-third of patients already in the chair are interested in something you can provide, but you’re not talking about it. It represents a significant opportunity in the practice.”
Andrews, who also is CooperVision senior director of North America professional and academic affairs, presented insights gleaned from the CLI survey and solicited feedback from panelists, including Andrew Bruce, a licensed dispensing optician from Vancouver, Washington; Alysse Henkel, Vision Council’s senior director of market research and analytics; Inna Lazar, OD, who practices at Greenwich Eye Care in Connecticut; and Jennifer Tsai, OD, founder of Line of Sight in New York.
“Since the pandemic, we’re noticing people are wanting to wear glasses at home, but contact lenses when they go out,” Tsai said.
Laza added: “I make an effort to let patients in spectacles know they are candidates for contact lenses. I like to plant that seed. In a year or two they’ll be back and want to take a chance on contact lenses.”
According to the report, which was cultivated by CLI in partnership with global research firm Protégé, “75% of glasses-wearing patients reported that contact lenses were not discussed at their most recent eye exam,” Andrews said. “Likewise, patients wearing contact lenses (45%) said glasses weren’t discussed and, if they were, they were discussed as a back-up.”
“We try to get to the root of a patient’s total vision needs,” Bruce said. “If patients tell you they’re skiers or go to the gym, these are great opportunities to talk about daily disposables.”
Vision Council data indicates that patients who had a recent eye exam are 10 percentage points more likely to be dual wearers, Henkel noted.
Andrews shared additional insights from the survey: Respondents said when they are home, they prefer to wear spectacles most of the time, and the same goes for air travel.
“As we move outside the home, we see the preference for contact lenses start to increase, especially for exercise,” she said. “But only 9% of patients wearing spectacles said their doctors talked about wearing contact lenses for exercise.”
Lazar said she uses the analogy of shoes with her patients.
“You don’t have to have just one set of contact lenses,” she said. “We enhance their vision for near when they’re at work, but enhance for distance when they’re golfing or playing tennis. That’s been appreciated by my patients.
“Patients are already used to having multiple pairs of glasses — computer, distance, near, sunglasses,” Lazar added.
“We have to let patients know it doesn’t have to be either/or,” Bruce said.
Henkel noted that millennials have the highest rate of dual wear: 40% vs. 33% for Generation Z.
CLI released the full survey results 1 month after Vision Expo East, on April 26. Its members include Alcon, Bausch + Lomb, CooperVision and Johnson & Johnson Vision, according to a press release from the group.
Reference:
- New report: Significant upside opportunity for patients & practices from dual contact lens & glasses prescribing. https://www.contactlensinstitute.org/news/dual-wear-news-release/. Published April 26, 2023. Accessed May 1, 2023.
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