| Brent Hanson - LasikFraud.com 2005-01-27, 8:51 am |
| Consumers gaining more options for correcting vision without surgery
By Mike Foley
STAFF WRITER
While the number of laser eye surgeries continues to grow - more than eight
million LASIK eye surgeries alone have been performed since the mid-1990's -
many people who need vision improvement aren't interested in surgery, or
aren't good candidates for the operations.
For those people, technology is still at the forefront. Every year new
materials, designs and innovations allow people to see better with their
eyeglasses and contact lenses. And a growing number of other techniques are
surfacing to help improve eyesight without surgery.
All of this is good news for Baby Boomers who find at age 40 or so that the
print in their phone books has shrunk and restaurant menus are all but
indecipherable.
How to make your vision clearer is an individual decision, said Dr. David
Wood, a Greenville ophthalmologist.
"Some people just don't want to do the surgery," Wood said, "but they still
don't want to be encumbered by glasses."
That would seem to make contact lenses the preferred choice. But Wood said
it's not that easy.
"Not all people can wear contact lenses," he said.
For those patients, there are a growing number of therapies designed to
change the shape of the cornea. These include: freezing the cornea to
reshape it; pounding it with radio waves; and flattening it at night with
specially designed contact lenses that allow some wearers to go without any
vision correction the next day, Wood said. In countries such as Canada,
they're even implanting lenses into patients' eyes.
Despite these medical procedures, the tried and true remains the most
popular option, and that is soft contact lenses.
"Soft lenses are the biggest part of my practice," Wood said.
While contact lenses are the industry standard, First Vision Media Group --
at its www.visioncareproducts.com Web site -- says it's estimated that as
many as 3 million contact lens wearers "drop out" each year. The chief
complaint is pain. Patients also complain about the hassles of daily
cleaning and maintenance of lenses.
Resolving both of those issues took a giant leap forward in October 2001
with FDA approval of CIBA Vision's Focus Day & Night lenses.
The lenses, the first OK'd for continuous 30-day wear, are made of 24
percent water, and 76 percent silicone hydrogel. In addition, the lens
surface is treated to maintain its wetness with tears.
"This is the newest generation of contact lenses," said Dr. Joseph Hopkins,
a Greenville ophthalmologist. "Hydrogels are the big buzzword in the
industry right now."
Besides being more comfortable, the new lenses ease a physician's burden.
Most eye doctors, Hopkins said, know their patients are likely to wear their
lenses longer than directed.
Now, patients can wear these lenses for 30 days without compromising eye
safety.
"The nice side effect is, they feel great," Hopkins said.
Contact lens discomfort occurs due to insufficient oxygen getting to the
eyes. That compromises normal eye function and may cause the corneas to
swell, which leads to irritated, red eyes and pain.
Night & Day lenses allow both oxygen and water to get to the eye, even while
sleeping. While minimal cornea swelling is common during sleep -- even in
people who don't wear contact lenses -- sleeping in ordinary lenses reduces
oxygen supply to the eyes and is not recommended by doctors.
"These allow something like six times more oxygen to get to the eye than
normal lenses," Hopkins said.
Bausch & Lomb has a product that is similar to the Night & Day lenses --
PureVision -- that will be available in April, said Dr. David Seibel, chair
of the American Optometric Association's contact lens and cornea section.
Both products are safe and user-friendly, he said.
Seibel, also in private practice in St. Louis, said 90 percent of his
patients come into his office wanting LASIK surgery. About 5 percent of them
ultimately get the surgery.
"The reason they want LASIK is because they want clear, comfortable, 24-hour
vision without the hassle of contacts," Seibel said. "So I say, 'If I can
give you a contact you place in your eye the first of the month and you
don't do anything else with it until the end of the month when you throw it
away, would you be happy?'"
Most of them are, he said. The extended wear lenses aren't for everyone,
since some patients work in dusty environments, or have a tendency for dry
eyes, or accumulate proteins, oils and other deposits, Seibel said.
Those who are used to rigid, gas-permeable lenses also have the option of
extended-wear lenses, he said.
"For those who can't wear that lens, the major culprit is dry eyes," he
said.
Other new options such as the Accuvue Advance, Hopkins said, can be worn
much longer than traditional soft lenses.
"They're maybe not approved for two-week wear," he said, "but they are four
times softer than the next best Accuvue lens.
"Using them means less redness, less irritation, less chance of infection."
While contact lenses are improving, many inhabitants of the baby boomer
generation are finding they need reading glasses -- or much longer arms.
Bifocals were fine in their time, but that time may have been the 1800s.
Recently, progressive lenses have become the standard for those whose eyes
are aging.
"I'm 53. I can see without my glasses or contacts up close," said Wood, "but
not far away."
Progressive lenses, such as those made by Varilux and Zeiss, allow a wider
field of vision than a traditional bifocal and a smoother transition between
distances.
"A truck driver who's looking at the road and then at directions, would be
OK with bifocals," Wood said, since he could see close up and at long
distance. "But then they can't see the speedometer," which is at a medium
distance.
Progressive, or multi-focal, lenses can take care of that, and address the
limited peripheral vision that was common in bifocals.
"You just raise your head and you see what you need to," he said. "What
these do is take you back to the way your vision used to be."
In fact, these multi-focal lenses can be designed with more than two or
three powers, Seibel said, enough to accommodate any vision need.
"These are a direct demand from the baby boomer generation," he said.
Because of all the new technology, Seibel said, optometrists and
ophthalmologists are discovering they have to work hard to fit patients
exactly.
"There's a greater demand on our doctors to get to know their patients," he
said. "We're not fitting a contact lens to an eyeball; I'm fitting a vision
system to a person."
It's an exciting time to be working in his field because of the
technological advances, Seibel said.
"Everyone is trying to build a better mousetrap," he said, but while that is
good news for patients who can afford it, older technology is still in
widespread use. "A large portion of the market is very price-sensitive. And
this isn't going to be available to them for a long time."
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