Conversations in practice: managing the long-term wearer

Some eye care practitioners spend considerable marketing resources driving potential new wearers to our practices. We dedicate chair time to guiding patients through their first experience of contact lenses. And our practice team spends many hours helping patients attain the freedom that contact lens wear provides.

Yet, despite all our efforts, research suggests that while more than three-quarters of a million (0.77m) people in the UK may start wearing contact lenses over the course of a year, as many as half a million (0.54m) drop out.1,2 Are we as enthusiastic with the more established wearers as we are with the new ones, or does the ‘new wearer’ novelty wear off? Do we simply let them drift away, hoping there is someone to take their place?