Having a difference of opinion with my contact lens optician

Harry Angstrom

I'm not sure how common this is, but I'm not seeing eye to eye (pardon the pun) with my contact lens optician at the moment.
I've been wearing contacts for over 12 years, never had any problems. Started off with -2.50 for left and right, gradually going up to -3.00 and -2.75 for right and left eye respectively over the space of a few years. I never had any issue with my prescription.

Last year, my usual optician seemed to disappear and has been replaced by someone who seems intent on bringing down my prescription. After a recent check-up he now wants to reduce my prescription to -2.00 for my left eye and -2.25 for my right eye. He started reducing my prescription on my first consultation with him last year and I definitely noticed a difference to my eyesight in that it was not as sharp as it previously was, so when I told him this I expected him to increase my prescription again, but instead he wants to reduce it further . He says that according to my reading of the charts, my contact lens strength should be reduced but I know myself that it's just not sharp enough for me in day to day life, with the result that I'm wearing my glasses more and more these days because I'm so pissed off with the reduced strength of my contact lenses.

Have any other contact lens wearers had an experience like this? I just find it a bit odd that a new optician suddenly seems to think my prescription needs to be reduced when I was perfectly happy with my prescription for ten years or so with my previous optician.

blackeyedpeat

A small reduction in prescription can be difficult to manage for you and your optician.
Your optician feels there is a genuine reduction in prescription, improvement in vision and need to alter your prescription. If you are 40ish they may also be trying to delay the need for additional reading correction in the short to medium term.

You may not have expected to hear of a reduction after many years of gradual increasing prescriptions.
You may be used to the stronger power and may have difficulty tolerating the weaker lenses.

It would be normal to give a trial of the new power to see if you can tolerate the full reduction. If not a partial reduction could be tried and if you are still unhappy with your vision a compromise or your original prescription may be necessary.

Return to the optician and explain your symptoms. They should happily try to improve your vision.

convert

You could always go for a second opinion somewhere and explain your situation to the new optician. The other option is to go to someone who uses an autorefractor (I went to an opthamologist for this test - was a lot more costly than an optician) as it doesn't require any feedback from the patient.

As much as I hate wikipedia, this is actually a relatively good, basic explanation of the process: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorefractor

Foggles

Most Optometrists have autorefractors but they are only the starting point of a full refraction. A lot of Optometrists use retinoscopy which give a better starting point for the skilled user as it can give information about the stability of a patients focus as well as other information on the quality of the surface of the eye, transparency of the media etc.

But getting back to the issue of the conflict of opinion with your CL optician: I would do a trial of the lower Rx and if after a month you don't find them better ask for your previous Rx and I'm sure your optician will be fine with that.

Failing that a second opinion would do no harm.