MyDay® Toric in Practice

by Thomas Pinkston, OD

At our office we consistently analyze our objectives to better improve our eye care experience for our patients. Our team constantly discusses: How can we better serve each patient? How can we be more efficient? How can we improve individual protocols for a better overall experience? It wasn’t until a few years ago that I realized that just as my team has goals and objectives for each patient, each one of my patients have objectives they expect me to meet and exceed. This is no more obvious than with contact lens patients. When a contact lens patient enters my office, regardless of if they verbalize it or not, they have 2 objectives for me as their eye care provider: 1) deliver reliably clear vision 2) fit them in a lens that is comfortable throughout the day. This can be particularly challenging in astigmatic contact lens wearers. CooperVision’s MyDay^® toric contact lens has allowed me to meet patient expectations and my own requirements for delivering quality eye care.[1]

Stability of a toric contact lens is one of the biggest factors in a patient's visual success in that lens. It is well known that the Biofinity^® toric lens is the go-to contact lens choice for many eye care professionals.[2] The stability*[3] that Biofinity toric offers creates an unmatched wearer experience.[4] While Biofinity toric is a leader for monthly astigmatic patients² there was always an unfilled void for astigmatic patients wanting or needing daily disposable lenses. This was most obvious when selecting a lens that delivered patients comfort and consistent reliable vision[5] throughout the day. In my experience, the most common problem daily disposable contact lenses had was lens rotation, leading to poor or inconsistent vision and unhappy patients. The unstable nature of many daily disposable toric lenses is what allows MyDay toric to lead as my preferred choice, just as Biofinity toric does in the monthly astigmatic category. Optimized Toric Lens Geometry™ creates consistent vision and a stable lens. The horizontal iso thickness and continuous ballast design makes the lens fit like the Biofinity toric.  This is obvious not only for patients but on slit lamp examination.

The second issue I encountered behind instability is poor settling time of daily disposable toric lenses. Many daily lens options would not only move excessively but also settle slowly. Anytime I fit an astigmatic patient in a new contact lens I make it a point to discuss the time the lens needs to “settle”. While eye

care professionals understand what this means, many times it sounds like an excuse to buy time to the patient.  Patients want clear vision immediately. A patient will begin to make a decision if they like a lens within the first few minutes, regardless of what I may have told them about settling time. The faster a patient can realize clear vision in my chair the more confident they will be in their lenses. This is particularly obvious when a patient is already in a lens that settles quickly, like the Biofinity toric lens.^3* Based on its unique lens design the Myday toric does just that, settles quickly. With prior lens options, my staff would supervise patient lens insertion with their lenses and remind them of the time needed for the lens to settle. With MyDay toric, after my staff facilitates lens application, my job becomes easy. I can confidently enter an exam room with a much higher probability of initial success.[6]** I am able to immediately discuss with each patient their clear vision versus discuss the need for time to settle or more time to try this new lens.

In recent years, after a new daily disposable lens option was released, I would make it a point to offer it to patients, many of whom were already happy in a Biofinity toric lens.  Many daily disposable lens options would, to my surprise, work initially in the exam room. However, it became clear that after a few days most patients would call back and report unstable vision and request to be refit back in their reliable Biofinity toric lenses. For many of my patients, the Biofinity toric lens created such a high expectation of reliable vision[7] patients would not be satisfied unless this was exceeded by a new lens option, and rightfully so. Thankfully the MyDay toric lens does just that.^5** I have found that lens stability is equal to that of the Biofinity toric lens.^5** This has allowed me to confidently meet patient visual expectations in a daily disposable lens.[8]

Since its release in 2017, MyDay toric has become one of my most trusted lenses to deliver reliable comfort and vision to my patients.  Before MyDay toric, one of the most challenging patient demographics to fit was astigmatic patients with contact lens comfort issues. During the fitting process, I found that patients with astigmatic correction had to sacrifice the reliability of clear vision to obtain desired comfort in their lenses. This made setting realistic expectations difficult when fitting a patient in a daily toric contact lens. Once I realized the patient would benefit from daily toric lens options I found myself immediately tapering patient expectations to match the vision for comfort trade off that many patients experienced. After its release in 2017 I immediately began to fit the lens on patients with prior failure with other daily toric lenses and satisfied monthly toric contact lens wearers. Surprisingly, not only did the lens meet patients expectations for both vision and comfort but I found myself not having to taper patient expectations for the first time when fitting a daily toric lens.  The lens performance spoke for itself.

My patients don’t just want me to deliver on comfort and vision with their contact lenses, they expect me to. Our team works diligently to improve every aspect of our eye care experience. MyDay toric meets my expectations by settling quickly and reliably. Additionally, the lens allows me the ability to meet patient expectations and meet the high standard of patient experience our office works so hard to deliver.