The Importance of Contact Lens Comfort
Dr. Glover
So I don't know about you two, but when it comes to practicing every day, I love to be the hero and I look at every day as an opportunity to help my patients live their best lives. One common theme that I see with patients with contact lens is discomfort. But we now have some amazing solutions at our fingertips to help those patients. Britt, I'm curious, when it comes to patient interaction in your practice, what kind of dialogue are you having with your patients to make sure they have the right solutions to accommodate their lifestyle?
Dr. Gustafson
Yeah, great question, Daryl. Like you, I definitely strive to be the hero to all of my contact lens patients and all of my patients. I like to ask patients very targeted questions to determine what their wearing reality is. That gives me a foundation to make a personalized recommendation to that patient.
So that's the opportunity to be the hero to that patient. That's how I leverage the WaterInnovations portfolio from Alcon, is to give that patient the technology they need so that can be really life altering for patients, and it just takes that small amount of time to make that impact.
Dr. Glover
What I'm hearing is you're having a conversation, you're partnering with the patient in front of you to understand where their pain points are, but you're taking the time to actually get the whole picture more than anything. I love that. Now, Selina, you're all about creating that bespoke experience. So when your patients come in, they demand the best, but how are you navigating this conversation with your patients when they come in and they're experiencing contact lens discomfort?
Dr. McGee
Patients don't know what they don't know. Right?
Dr. Gustafson
Yeah.
Dr. Glover
Very true.
Dr. McGee
They come into our clinic, we're the subject matter experts. We have the opportunity to ask very discerning questions to find out how comfortable their contact lenses are. But if we're not intentional about asking that, what I have found is patients will wear a lens, they think this is as good as it's going to be and they reset their normal. I don't want my patients to just be fine. I don't want them to just have the technology that they think they're doing fine in. The only way to get to that end point is to ask really good questions and not lean into, well, if it's not broke, let's not fix it mentality. That for me has been a big practice builder because that's how I was able to build that culture of the patient coming in saying, "Well, what do you got new for me this year, Dr. McGee?"
Dr. Glover
Yeah, I love that. So what I'm hearing is, we really have to be intentional with our questions, and most importantly, we have to listen to be able to connect the dots with whatever problem that that patient has.
Dr. Gustafson
Absolutely.