Dr. Nicholas Gidosh offers his top pearls on how to maximize the multifocal contact lens fit for your patients with presbyopia.
By Nicholas Gidosh, OD, FAAO
Multifocals are a great way to build specialty lenses within your practice and to differentiate yourself from other practices in your area. Here are a few different advice points to utilize on your next multifocal fit:
1: Don’t over minus the patient. If you do, it’s going to detract from the quality of the vision they’re getting near. So, it’s really one of the most critical points and make sure that you give as much plus as you can while preserving their distance vision. Make sure you do tests to make sure that you’re not over “minusing” the patient at distance.
2: Manage expectations. Help the patient understand what the multifocal contact lens is going to be like for them. Let them know they won’t be seeing exact 20/20 vision distance and near. While it’d be great if we could get to that, often it’s not our goal. One of my favorite ways of explaining it is: “I’m going to help you see most things most of the time more. We’re trying to reduce your dependence on reading glasses.”
3: Use “Real World” targets. Have the patient get up and walk around the office or look outside the window at some street sign. This is functional at a distance while driving their car down the street. Another idea is to have them look at a cellphone and have them look at some text messages.
4: Getting the patient to try it out. Have the patient test it at home, running errands, a clock on the stove, workspace, driving to and from home.
5: Follow the fitting guide. The fit guide is our cookbook; if you follow the directions, you’re going to get good success.
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