How Are Contact Lenses Properly Fit?Contact lenses are medical devices that rest directly on the surface of the eye. How they are fit matters for comfort, clarity, and long-term eye health. Surprisingly, not all contact lens fittings use the same method. At first glance, the first four methods below may seem unusual—but they do exist.
1. No effort & Irresponsible The doctor simply writes your eyeglass prescription on a prescription pad and tells you to order any contact lenses to match. This doesn't account for how a contact lens sits on the eye, ignoring corneal shape, tear film quality, and how vision changes when a lens is worn directly on the eye.
2. No effort, but some responsibility. The doctor writes your eyeglasses prescription and tells you to take it to someone who fits contact lenses.
3. Minimal effort with some responsibility. The doctor hands you contact lenses from his stock based only on your eyeglasses prescription and sends you out the door. While convenient, it may not provide the best option for the individual eye shape or visual demands.
4. Some effort with responsibility. This is the same as above but the doctor follows up in a week to be sure the lenses are satisfactory after wear.
5. Effort and responsibility: After your basic examination, the surface of your eye is measured with a keratometer, and your prescription and fit is determined through your immediate wear of diagnostic lenses. You are taught how to handle and care for the lenses, given a wearing schedule, and are seen in a week to determine the lenses’ success. The next visit determines if they were successful. If not, new diagnostic lenses are given with a weekly follow-up. This continues until successful wear.
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How do we fit contact lenses? We use the 5th method with extra caution.
Before prescribing contact lenses, we first determine whether contact lens wear is appropriate for you. Our eye doctor evaluates your entire visual system along with your daily habits, occupation, and hobbies. Certain jobs and activities—such as field work or work involving dirty or greasy hands—may make contact lenses less practical, while others, including sports and law enforcement, are often ideal for contact lens wear. This personalized approach helps ensure comfortable, safe, and successful contact lens use. |
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We always begin by discussing the most important reason for wearing contact lenses—cosmetics! Contact lenses require significantly more care, hygiene, and personal responsibility than eyeglasses. For successful and safe contact lens wear, you must be genuinely motivated to wear them and committed to proper daily care.
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Contact lenses are available for all vision conditions, but some make contact lens fitting difficult (high amounts of farsightedness and astigmatism) and some are better treated with contact lenses (eyes with differing powers [anisometropia] and extremely strong prescriptions). You are then given an estimate of the cost and our fee policies.
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Secondly, we emphasize that contact lenses take more time and responsibility (cleanliness, storage, extra solutions, and over-wearing) than glasses and that cosmetics are the main driving force for wear (mentioned above).
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Thirdly, after considering your vision condition, we measure the surface of your eye with a keratometer to determine the curvature of the contact lenses and long term wear of the outer surface of your eye(cornea).
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Fourth we select a diagnostic lens to teach the insertion removal and care of your lenses. Our assistants assist you to place the lenses on your eye and the doctor evaluates the fit and power of the lenses. If the diagnostic lenses seem correct, we follow up in a week to be sure the lenses endure long time wear. You leave with a wearing schedule and necessary supplies. If not, you take the diagnostic lenses home with supplies only to practice insertion and removal. At the same time we order new diagnostic lenses from our laboratory better designed for your wear. At that moment your entire bill is paid. The above process takes place until final fit is concluded.
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After three follow-up visits and your care is not complete, the doctor discusses your chance for success. If you wish to quit, half your fee is applied toward future care for you or your family. If not, we are obliged to continue the process until successful fit. Your only change in fee would be the difference in cost if a more expensive lens is needed. There is no refund from that point. Normally, if fit goes beyond three months an additional $50.00 fitting fee is applied. However with current supply chain delays that has been suspended.