letters

Contact Lenses for Golfers

Dear Eyecare Business,

After reading your article, "Fore Sales" (February), I believe it's only fair to assess Eyecare Business with a penalty stroke for not including contact lenses in the discussion about how eyecare professionals can grow their practices by reaching out to golfers and the growing number of patients who play sports.

Consider that contact lenses offer patients advantages over glasses, particularly in sports, because they provide sharper images, eliminate the disadvantages of spectacle movement and fogging, and increase peripheral vision.

With respect to UV protection, while I agree with Dr. Slanick, that golfers would benefit from sunglasses, what about adding a pair of UV blocking contact lenses for added protection? In considering the needs of the patient, while also factoring in profitability for the practice, conversation about UV protection should not be limited to sunglasses.

While most sunglasses can help block UV rays that enter through the lenses, most frame styles do not prevent unfiltered rays from reaching the eyes from the sides, top, and/or bottom of the glasses. Because of this, some sunglasses block as little as 50 percent of all UV radiation from reaching the eyes. UV-blocking contact lenses offer unique protection against the direct and reflected rays not blocked by sunglasses or hats, providing contact lens wearers with an important added measure of protection.

However, not all contact lenses offer UV protection, and, of those that do, not all provide similar absorption levels. All ACUVUE^® brand contact lenses offer effective UV-blocking. Among contact lens brands, ACUVUE^® contact lenses offer the highest level of UV-blocking available, blocking more than 90 percent of UVA rays and 99 percent of UVB rays that reach the lens.

The lenses are also the only contacts to receive the seals of acceptance for ultraviolet absorbing contact lenses from both the American Optometric Association and the World Council of Optometry.

How can a discussion about contact lenses add value to eyecare practices? A study sponsored by the London Business School found that, on average, a contact lens patient is 1.5 times more profitable than a spectacle patient. Most contact lens wearers also purchase spectacles and, according to the study, patients who wear both spectacles and contact lenses are more loyal, 60 percent likely to make a dual purchase from their eyecare practitioner.

This not only brings additional income to the practice, it promotes a stronger bond between patient and practice and leads to greater patient satisfaction and patient retention.

Simply put, when talking with patients about vision correction, contact lenses should be par for the course.

— J. Patrick Cummings, OD, FAAO,
vice president,
Profession and Customer Development Group,
Vistakon