I had tried soft lenses first and then RGP for many years and eventually gave up both because of the unbearable discomfort. I had switched back to eyeglasses for 5 years and thought that I would kiss the CL goodbye for good until I went to an OD office inside a local COSTCO store to have my eyeglasses prescription renewed around half year ago. The OD talked me into wearing soft CL again. The deal was that I paid the $80 fitting fee and would get as many trial lenses as I needed. After 8 different trial lenses on both eyes and 2 months later, I finally got the perfect fit (The average is 2 fittings per eye for toric lens wearers, so I felt a little bit embarrassed when I called the OD for the last trial).
I am currently and happily wearing the CV Encore Torics (Material : 45% methafilcon A, 55% water). Based on the information posted in many CL sales websites ( for example, https://www.smartviewcontacts.com/pr...uctType=Weekly), this is a bi-weekly replacement CL. However, I have been wearing the same pair for 4 months already, and they are still going strong. My CL awareness reduces with time too. I take care of the lenses like normal daily wear lenses and spend at least 5 minutes to clean up the lenses every day. Instead of following faithfully the no rub instruction recommended by the no rub MPS(which may cost up to $370 annually) , I also use daily cleaner and low cost saline solution everyday for better cleaning and more saving in MPS. I think that the extra minutes per day is the time well spent to do the saving. I paid $50 (taxed included) for 12 lenses from the SAM's club. Imagine the amount I can save in the long run. Of course, if you can afford to spend only one minute a day to do the disinfection, you have better stick to the manufacturer's suggested replacement schedule.
I have done enough research to convince myself that the Encore Toric (and probably many other brands) can last much longer than the manufacturer claims. I believe that the lenses will last as long as other daily wear lenses and may not need to be replaced unless they start to have wear and tear. However, the different replacement lenses in the market are made of many different types of materials. I must emphasize that there is no guarantee that other brands' replacement lenses can be used longer than the planned schedule. Your eyes may also have more than normal protein build up on the CL that prevents you from prolonging the CL lifetime. You just have to do your own research to find out. Your OD may be very tight lips about this issue because of conflict of interest. The Internet is a very good source to start your own research. The following is my direct encounters with some ODs regarding this issue and my own investigation. For those 3 Os (Opticians, Optometrists, and Ophthalmologists, right?) who want to 'respond' that I am jeopardizing my eyes, please read on before you make your point.
THE MOTIVATION
Even though the Encore Toric is a bi-weekly lens based on the advertisements (The CV website is very vague about the replacement schedule, I guess that they have learnt from the Acuvue class action lawsuit.), my OD told me that if I used the No Rub MPS, and rub the lens every time before disinfection, the lens should last for a month. At first, I thought that he was really trying to save me money. However, I pressed a little bit further and asked him the direct question : "If I treat this lens like a regular daily wear lens, why can't it last longer?". His answer was that the lens composition might change over time due to the disinfecting solution chemicals and the enzymes. I was very skeptical about his answer because if he approved a 2-week lens to be used for a month, then the lens had to be chemically stable for at least 4 weeks but would start to deteriorate after a month according to his opinion. I did not think that the FDA would approve an unstable product with such a small margin of error.
I also asked the OD's opinion regarding the Acuvue daily disposable lens lawsuit. He just tried to steer away from the topic and talked about something else.
(http://www.jnj.com/news/jnj_news/20020306_1029.htm - It is a class action lawsuit filed in Camden, New Jersey, in 1996, and involves allegations that Vistakon's marketing of ACUVUE® and 1-DAY ACUVUE® lenses created the misleading impression among consumers that the less expensive 1-DAY ACUVUE® lens was different from the ACUVUE® lens and should not be used for the same wear schedule as the ACUVUE® lens, when in fact both lenses are medically suitable for the same wear schedules. The action did not question the quality or safety of the lenses. )
A while ago I walked into a local OD private practice store and had a chat with the OD regarding the replacement schedule issue. He told me that the FDA approved the lens to be used for two weeks, and that was what he would tell his patients. Was he trying to cover his butt or something else?
Both ODs did not give me a satisfactory answer. It appeared to me that they were hiding something. I decided to do a little research and find out the answer myself. No doubt the Internet is my best resource for this.
THE RESEARCH
The Acuvue class action lawsuit that I mentioned above was really the first hint that made me puzzle about the real lifetime of my CL.
A web site from the University of Waterloo, School of Optometry talks about soft lens material (http://www.optometry.uwaterloo.ca/clj/fw_spherical.pdf ). That web site has a lot of useful technical information about many popular soft lenses in the market. It shows the material composition of CV Encore, and indicates that it is a monthly replacement lens. I also found out from the same web site that Sunsoft Toric has the exact composition of CV Encore Toric, except that the Sunsoft lenses are also approved for daily wear and extended wear. The Sunsoft Toric Div I in particular is designed for daily wear, and it is made of the same material as CV Encore Toric. The price is much more expensive than CV because you can specify any degree of Axis ( I believe that this is a custom made lens). Here is my point, if two toric lenses use the same material, and one is approved for daily wear, why can't the other one also be used for daily wear?
And with more web surfing, I bumped into the CL Spectrum VisionCare Forum web site (http://www.visioncareforums.com/forums.asp) which has a lot of insightful exchanges from many ODs in the Optometric Management Forum (http://www.visioncareforums.com/foru...=22&siteid=vcf). One of the convincing clues proving that my replacement lens can last longer than I thought was from a post by a user called 'icare' (a practicing OD or something similar, I believe) in the Optometric Management under the thread “diagnostic lens fee?(http://www.visioncareforums.com/show...904&siteid=vcf). The following is the post:
What really struck me is the statement "Patients are quickly learning that they can cheaply obtain a pair of trials that they will wear as an old conventional lens as long as they can." Here is the confession of an OD who unconditionally opened his kimono in front of everyone and told us the naked truth. Notice that he was not even being specific about a particular brand. Based on his/her comment, it seems like other brands' replacement lenses may also last longer than the advertised schedule.Anyway, back on the topic....
I've given a lot of thought to charging a pre-order fee for the first set of 'trials.' I've had too many walk and leave me short another bank lens.
I'd like to put the charge in effect. Eventually, I probably will. Patients are quickly learning that they can cheaply obtain a pair of trials that they will wear as an old conventional lens as long as they can. I'm tired of giving away lenses that are never really paid for.
Contact lens fitting fees have to rise, again.
Based on an article, (http://www.optistock.com/spotlight5.htm ), up to 1/3 of ODs' life supporting income comes from selling CL. No wonder they have the most incentive to have the patients replace the lens within the shortest period of time. The article also mentioned that only 50% of the CL wearers complied to the replacement schedule. Look like one half of the folks out there had already figured out the 'Well kept secret' long before I did. But again, I am a late comer.
Someone who has knowledge about the CL business told me later thatActually one thing I learn from the CL industry is that if they do not want the public to know the truth, they will be very vague about the facts so that the public can't sue them for misleading.the FDA does not approve or regulate CL replacement schedule. The FDA's only concern is with wearing schedule on the eye (daily wear versus extended wear). Replacement schedule has always been a function of sales and marketing people concocting a scheme to garner more dollars through greater usage or disposability.
THE STATISTICS
A complying CL (disposable, planned replacement) wearer can easily spends $400 to $600+ a year on the CL care ($80-$100 for CL fitting, $350 for daily disposable CL or $250 CL + $100 to $200 solution for planned replacement, another $50 for rewetting drops for those who still need it). According to the same article(http://www.optistock.com/spotlight5.htm ), there are 80million people in the whole world wearing CL in year 2000, and around 70% of the 33million US CL wearers use either 1-2 week disposable or planned replacement CL. If every one of the 23 million wearers complies with the replacement schedule, the US CL (just the disposable and planned replacement) market alone should be at least $5.8 billions ($250*23millions) a year and not just the $3 billions for worldwide CL market that the report said. These numbers shows that the compliance rate is really much less than the reported 50% (probably around 20% or less)
MORE ABOUT COMPLIANCE
I have read many posts written by the 3 O's in different eye care forums talking about 'non-compliance' of the CL wearers resulted in a lot of horrible 'eye-popping' stories. Have those people working in the CL industry ever thought for a second that those poor victims are a result of their own 'greed' From a CL consumer’s point of view, why does the he/she need an eye exam. annually instead of every 2 to 3 years? By law, the corrective lens prescription lasts for only 1 year. Who is going to benefit more from this law, the ODs or the CL wearer? The eye care system (from CL to disinfection solutions and rewetting drops) are also excessively expensive. I think that as long as there are buyers, the eye care companies can charge as much as they want, or this is just another way for the public to pay back for those multi-million dollars lost/settled by the eye care companies from the multiple class action lawsuits.
The end result is that the majority of the CL users ranging from 'novice' to 'seasoned veterans' will never fully comply with the instructions recommended by the eye care system. On one side, the CL industry create all kinds of innovative and $mart(=greedy?) ways in the eye care system trying to squeeze as much money as possible from the consumers, and on the other side, the consumers just try every possible way to spend less. The CL industry need to change their business models by reducing eye care cost and stop ‘fooling?the public if they want to survive in the long run. The consumer's health will benefit from the lower cost(like go to eye exam more often, use more disinfection solution, and change lenses more often at reduced costs) because of the higher compliance rate. Remember what happened to those PC shops that thought that they could keep selling PC for 50% profit margins at the price of $4000 a system less than 10 years ago? None of them survive today had they not changed the business models, and a much better performance PC is now sold for 10 times less. Today, a PC is as common as TV in each family. Also, the $400 DVD several years ago is now sold for $60. Will that happen to CL or is that happening now?
$500 plus a year for CL system is still very prohibitive to the majority of the population who need corrective lenses. There are 6.3 billion people on this planet, and 80 million CL wearers are not even 1.5% of the world population. The annual cost of the CL care must go down substantially to $100 range ($40 fitting, $40 solution, $20 CL or some similar combinations) in order to lure the vast amount of the untapped population to use CL. It takes only 250million CL users to become a $5 billion worldwide CL market annually based on my simplified model. I think that it is very possible if the CL industry is less greedy about the huge profits that they are getting now. Volume is 'King'.
MY AFTERTHOUGHT
Before the Internet Age, the OD's words were like gospel, because if I could not verify them easily, I had better believe them. Before the introduction of the replacement lenses, I treated my only pair of expensive and uncomfortable CL with uproots delicacy. I hated them (the discomfort part) but I could not afford to damage or lose them(I found out recently from the new replacement lenses can actually stand a lot of abuse by heavy digital rubbing. I would never rub the old lenses like this.). I think those days were long gone
In the old days, I was so envious/jealous of those people who lived so comfortably with their CL. I really thought that those people faked about the CL comfort. I believed that my bitter CL experience was very common among other CL wearers with astigmatism. This is the first time in my life that I really enjoy the new lenses and appreciate the technological advance in the CL field. The reason that I am posting this thread is because I am trying to share my CL experiences with the general public, and hopefully some will benefit from my findings without spending a big chunk of money. In the long run, I hope I am promoting the CL usage and not the other way.
INTERESTING OBSERVATION
This thread was also posted in the Contact Lens Spectrum General Discussion Forum (http://www.visioncareforums.com/foru...D=1&siteid=cls) earlier. I was actually expecting some nasty responses from some ODs or some people from the CL industry because a dollar saved by the consumers is a dollar taken away from their pockets (at least in the short term). But almost two weeks has gone, and I got only one candid response out of more than 200 hits.
I thought that the post there would touch some nerves among the CL industry personnel, and trigger a lot of responses. Maybe the nail had hit right at the central nerve, and it became so 'deadly' quiet. Or, am I spreading 'Communism' inside a 'Democratic' world?
Any comment from any 3 O's in this forum?
In order to get some feedback from the readers, please participate in the poll just for fun.
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