This year, we have seen more and more “generic” contact lenses coming into play. While (in the United States and most other countries) you need a prescription for the specific brand of contact lenses, many companies are releasing contact lenses into the market and then marketing them to consumers. This push is not an accident. Those companies realize the problems that they are going to have when they come to market. They realize the obstacles that they are going to need to overcome. However, they also realize that others have won the game before them, and they just want a small piece of the pie.
This trend is the same around the world. In other countries, consumer fashion brands are even coming out with their own lenses. And, if you think that this is never going to come to the shores of America or to your country, you have your head in the sand. All that these companies have to do in the United States is to get enough patients requesting their lenses. They simply need to request the lenses and give their eyecare practitioners’ name so that the request can be fulfilled, then they will work the system. There have been instances in which these requests were never made to practitioners. Sometimes prescribers do not want to go to the effort of verifying all the prescriptions that are coming through. These questionable manufacturers also align themselves with a group of providers who can go about the “fitting” process, and then they can dispense the lenses. If you are not aware of this, if you are not prepared for this, if you are thinking that this will not happen to you and your practice, you are very mistaken.
At this point, you may be asking “What can I do?” The oath that we took as eyecare providers is to protect our patients. Knowing that contact lenses are medical devices and can cause major problems does not allow us to simply stand on our prior victories. Instead, we need to up the ante on how we prescribe lenses, how we sell them, how we educate our patients, and how we advocate for our profession. The opticianry, optometric, and ophthalmologic communities can get together on this.
We have seen how the sale of lenses without a valid prescription at “night markets,” consumer stores, and other places has led to disaster in other countries. While it may be a small percentage of people who actually lose their vision or have problem with lenses, the reality is that medical devices need medical providers to be accountable for them. It’s up to you. Find a way to advocate, whether at the practice level by reporting on violations, at the state level to advocate for laws, or at the national level to promote awareness through legal channels. Together we can fight the generic game and get back to fitting lenses for our patients.
READ MORE: https://www.clspectrum.com/newsletters/contact-lenses-today/august-2,-2020
