Coopervision briefed professionals on how to unlock the potential of the latest contact lens materials and technologies in London last month.
The salubrious Rosewood Hotel, in High Holborn, hosted the CET event, which included keynote presentations looking at latest patient insights.
To gather new patient perspectives, Coopervision presented interviews with 16 contact lens wearers on their experience both before and after being fitted.
They commented on social situations, bullying at school, lifestyle freedoms and how wearing spectacles is still preferable during job interviews, when a more ‘intelligent look’ is required.
Further research from 221 glasses wearers and 200 contact lens wearers illustrated the value of dispensing both types of product though.
‘The number one lifestyle benefit of contact lenses is having the freedom to do things without restrictions and maintaining self-confidence,’ Coopervision head of marketing and professional services, UK and Ireland Mark Draper told Optician.
Indeed, the research also showed eight out of 10 contact lens wearers associate a sense of ‘freedom, confidence or adventure’ with contact lenses. More than half felt ‘a whole new world opened up to them’.
This was especially true among younger demographics, of whom 30% said they lost confidence wearing glasses at school and 16% reported getting bullied while wearing them.
‘Spending time outdoors is another important factor, and people really appreciate the value of contact lenses when socialising and going out with friends,’ Draper said.
The research survey also revealed eight out of 10 patients felt having both contact lenses and glasses offers the best of both worlds.
‘People like to mix and match between wearing their glasses and contact lenses,’ he added. This is a particularly poignant scenario among patients with presbyopia, although reaching for the reading glasses isn’t desirable in all social situations.
Dr Kathy Dumbleton, Mark Draper and Coopervison UK country manager Debbie Olive
‘If you’ve always been a glasses wearer and you reach the presbyopia stage it is no big deal to wear varifocals, but if you are a contact lens wearer and you develop presbyopia you don’t want to have to suddenly start wearing glasses,’ added Draper. ‘When you’ve got a person in your chair you also have to think about their lives when they leave the practice.’
Another crucial finding, Draper said, was that 80% of patients expect to be told if they are eligible for contact lenses. This expectation is not always met though – with just 30% saying the optometrist was the first person to mention contact lenses.
Furthermore, 40% of those surveyed thought worse of the optometrist for not mentioning the option of contact lenses and 65% were more likely to recommend their optician if informed they are suitable for contact lenses.
Coppervision’s event in London
‘A lot of consumers don’t know much about contact lenses or believe in the myths, like they go round the back of the eye,’ Draper said.
The Coopervision event included an educational session to demonstrate the emotional benefits of contact lenses, but also the clinical benefits of fitting silicone hydrogel daily disposable contact lenses.
During the evening, Dr Kathy Dumbleton, clinical associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, presented a review of published clinical data showing silicone hydrogel should be the material of choice, even in a daily modality.
Dr Dumbleton, originally from the UK, has more than 30 years of experience in vision research, with specific interests in contact lenses, the ocular surface, dry eye, visual performance and compliance with health care treatments. She completed her MSc in physiological optics and PhD in vision science at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
Networking at the Unlock the Potential reception
Dr Dumbleton told Optician silicone hydrogel has the edge over hydrogels due to better oxygen transmissibility.
‘Some patients need more oxygen than others to keep their eyes healthy. The longer the patients are going to be wearing contact lenses, the more oxygen we want to offer them, and we want to combine this with the convenience of a daily disposable,’ she said.
Silicone hydrogel lenses were becoming available in increased parameters and designs each year, now extending to spherical, toric and multifocal. But some ECPs and patients remained slow on the uptake. ‘Practitioners are aware of the difference [between silicone hydrogel and hydrogel] but may have been skewed by some of the early myths about silicone hydrogel. It’s very important practitioners talk to patients about all the options that are now available in contact lenses,’ Dr Dumbleton added.
When discussing the upgrade of contact lenses, price was often the obvious obstacle to overcome. ‘We think price is a perception in the mind of the practitioner rather than the patient,’ said Draper.
The difference, he said, between an old and new technology can be less than other regular costs such as takeaway coffee or mobile phone contracts. He added that entry level silicone hydrogels are now cheaper than hydrogel lenses anyway. In some instances, patients continued to wear the same type of contact lens for up to 20 years – and required educating about potential upgrades for lifestyle and comfort reasons.
With new technologies, the ‘prophylactic’ benefits of oxygen transmissibility can be difficult to explain to patients – in the same way as UV barriers on contact lenses until it is too late.
However, Dr Dumbleton said patients react better to softer terminology in the consulting room, with ‘applying’ and ‘removing’ preferable to ‘inserting’. Communicating about an upgrade can also be couched better with phrases such as ‘Is there anything more you’d like to do with your contact lenses,’ she suggested.
Senior marketing manager at Coopervision, Lara Drury, added: ‘Our Unlock the Potential event in London was the perfect opportunity for ECPs to find out more about the benefits of prescribing silicone hydrogel daily disposable contact lenses for their patients. We were delighted to be able to share our most recent consumer insights and premiere a number of inspiring testimonials from real patients who have experienced the benefits for themselves.’
A number of smaller roadshow events on the same theme will be taking place later in the year, Coopervision confirmed.