View from the High Street: Not just a soft option

Contact lenses have always been an integral part of our offer to patients. Over the years that I have worked in optometry, they have changed and developed incredibly. I always remember my first exposure to contact lenses was fitting scleral lenses on fellow students. It certainly made us have empathy with our patients, having experienced that discomfort for ourselves. Maybe it is an experience that current optometry students miss out on? The first-choice lens was always gas permeable then, as it was the far safer and more healthy option, but thankfully now with the innovations of soft lens materials, the first-choice lens for patients and practitioners has moved towards the newer soft lens. Our pre-registration students, searching for that elusive gas permeable lens fitting experience, may be the only ones who wish GP lenses were still popular with patients.