BLOG: Pioneers lecture to focus on contact lens discomfort

Monday, November 11, 2019

If getting patients to try contact lenses can be a challenge, persuading them to stick with it when they notice the first signs of discomfort can prove even harder. 
When it comes to contact lens drop-out rates, discomfort is cited as the number one factor. For many it’s the difference between an unsuccessful trial period and a lifetime of happy and healthy lens wear.
With that in mind, this year’s BCLA Pioneers Lecture will tackle the issue head-on.
Delivered by Professor Michel Guillon, the address – which has been approved for 1 CET point and is based upon Ocular Technology Group International (OTG-i) clinical research findings – will look at why discomfort is such an issue and what can be done to address it and give the patient confidence in their lenses.
Professor Guillon said: “Contact lens discomfort (CLD) is the major problem associated with contact lens wear. It leads to a substantial reduction in the benefits of using contact lenses as a vision correction modality for many wearers and is the leading cause of contact lens discontinuation.  
“The first step in dealing with CLD for individual patients is to precisely characterise the problem in order to develop a suitable management program with optimum chance of success.”
The lecture will critically review the various questionnaires used to determine CLD and demonstrate that discomfort symptomatology is unlike dry eye symptomatology without contact lenses.
Professor Guillon added: “We will identify the ocular and contact lens related factors influencing CLD and produce supporting evidence that the key to managing individual patients CLD is not simply quantifying CLD overall severity but characterising its occurrence, associations and consequence, with a view to establishing the unique CLD profile of individual patients upon which to develop a personalised management program for an impactful clinical outcome.” 
The Pioneers lecture is a highlight of the annual conference. Professor Michel Guillon is this year’s recipient, in recognition of his body of work built up over a 40 year career which has seen him present 150 papers or posters at scientific meetings around the world, author more than 80 scientific papers, co-edit a major textbook on contact lenses with Professor Montague Ruben and contribute over 19 chapters in textbooks. 
His work has seen an emphasis on vision and optical performance of all modalities of vision correction, specialised advanced vision testing methods, clinical and biochemical analysis and characterization of the tear film and dry eye problems and their management. 
The session will be just one of several to be delivered over the course of the BCLA’s Pioneers & Visionaries conference. 

Registration is now open for this event and is complimentary for full member of the BCLA. 

Want to bring a guest? 

BCLA members can invite up to 1 non-member guest to experience this event. The BCLA Member must attend the event in order for a guest to attend. BCLA members must register their guest by emailing the guest full name, email address and GOC number to [email protected] by 22 November 2019. If yourself or your guest are unable to attend, please notify BCLA in writing by emailing [email protected]