Trends in UK contact lens prescribing 2022

Understanding the types of contact lenses prescribed in the United Kingdom is potentially useful for a range of stakeholders in the contact lens community.

For prescribing eye care professionals (ECPs) – primarily contact lens opticians and optometrists in the UK – data acts as a benchmark of individual clinical approaches. A comparison to national prescribing trends might show that an ECP fits more rigid lenses than average, is using more soft multifocal fitting or lenses for myopia management than the norm or is perhaps under-indexed in their use of soft toric lenses or silicone hydrogel materials. In some cases, there could be good reason an ECP is not fitting an average distribution of contact lens types, but in other instances, such information might cause a reflection of clinical practice and changes to their approach to contact lenses in general and prescribing behaviour in particular.