CLs: Time to specialise

‘Every contact lens is specialist. If you start thinking any different, you’re not customising it for the patient,’ says contact lens optician and director of First Contact Opticians, Shelly Bansal. ‘The only difference is that some lenses are easier to fit and more accessible than others.’

It is a refreshing take from Bansal, who says the patient journey at First Contact is based around the practice philosophy of successful outcomes for its contact lens wearers.

‘What you define as success is open to negotiation because there are lots of variables, and I think one of the pitfalls with the profession is that we don’t negotiate well enough with our patients so we can match their expectations,’ he says. ‘Their expectation might be super vision, super comfort, 24 hours a day wear, but because it has never been addressed properly based on their physiology, their eye health, their visual needs, no one resets those expectations. So for us, it’s very important that we actually have a good understanding of our patient’s eye health and their prescription, their visual needs and their expectations.’