re: Making people go to the eye doctor every time they need new contacts is a joke

quote:

---

Posted by baybeefeetz Is there not a black market? Should be. Maybe some Chinese shite?

---

I bought some from Canada thru the interwebs. They took a little while to get here but they made it.

You don't, just order online

Most medical insurance plans cover eye health exams from an ophthalmologist (MD) for just your copay. They can check you for all sorts of eye diseases plus they update your Rx as part of the exam.

Imo, it is worth the time especially if any sort of eye disease runs in your family.

Personally I make sure to get a yearly physical, eye exam, dermatologist exam bc
1. I believe it is a good preventive thing
2. You are paying a good bit for health insurance so you might as well get some services for it.

quote:

---

How do you improperly wear contacts?

---

Leaving them in for a longer than you're supposed to, wearing them after the length of time you're supposed to dispose of them, wearing them without properly cleaning them, wearing them after they've been in a lens case that hasn't had its solution replaced often enough.... etc....

Just do what I do and wear a pair until they hurt. One box has lasted me 1 1/2 years.

quote:

---

Leaving them in for a longer than you're supposed to, wearing them after the length of time you're supposed to dispose of them, wearing them without properly cleaning them, wearing them after they've been in a lens case that hasn't had its solution replaced often enough.... etc....

---

Lol. What a pussy.

I had to switch to dailies because my eyes dry out too fast. More expensive but well worth it. Just chunk em after each day.

quote:

---

The family practitioner doesn't call the patient or bring him in to make sure he took the prescribed medicine correctly or is using a CPAP machine correctly. I'm not sure why many are trying to imply that this is the normal course of behavior in the medical community.

---

The frick? Of course family docs/internists have their patients come in to make sure the meds they're prescribed are helping. People with diabetes go for bloodwork/HgBA1C checks, people with hypertension get their blood pressure checked, etc, etc.

Having patients come in for yearly eye exams in order to get a new contact lens prescription is part of health maintenance. It's really not because we have to see you again to prescribe your contacts to you. Some eye diseases can be asymptomatic, and can only be detected with an eye exam. So, we recommend yearly checkups. However, if I have a patient that simply refuses to come in, and on the last exam they were healthy and showed no signs of any other eye problems; I'll usually renew their contact lens script.

quote:

---

It's really not because we have to see you again to prescribe your contacts to you.

---

Exactly. In the same way that the family practitioner doesn't need to see the patient so that he can order filters for his CPAP machine. Pointing to things like hypertension or high powered pain medicine as people in this thread have done are just false comparisons. The proof is in the pudding. Name all ways in which blood pressure medicine and opiates are comparable to contact lenses. Nowhere near the same thing.

quote:

---

Of course family docs/internists have their patients come in to make sure the meds they're prescribed are helping.

---

My comment that you took out of context was responding to the idea that the exams are necessary (not just that they are a good idea) to ensure that contacts are being worn properly. My comment (which is true) is that a doctor's office doesn't call patients to make sure that he used the antibiotics correctly--for some reason you conflated that with making sure medicine is working. The standard procedure is that the patient goes back to the doctor if he doesn't get better--no one checks to make sure the prescription was used as directed without a prompt. Arguing that a yearly checkup should be mandated through the withholding of the ability to purchase contacts because the ECP needs to ensure the contacts are being worn properly puts ECPs out of the mainstream of other health professionals.

quote:

---

Antibiotics aren't typically used chronically. In the cases they are, then you will definitely get a call from the doctors office to schedule revisits. Why? Using prescribed things (pills, contact lenses, etc) can cause adverse effects that the lay person may not be able to detect on his/her own. If you only wanted to wear contacts for a week to 10 days like a typical antibiotic prescription, I wouldn't call you back in for another exam either.

---

Again, the example is to illustrate that the HCP does not check to make sure that the item is being used correctly. I am specifically responding to that contention. Your examples about adverse effects that HCP may check up on does not speak to correct usage. The argument that withholding the ability to purchase contacts is necessary to ensure proper use is hogwash. Since you don't appear to disagree with that assertion, it looks like we're in agreement.

quote:

---

They said I'm not eligible for LASIK. I'm hoping soon they come out with a procedure for people deemed not eligible.

---

What's wrong with your eyes, if I may ask?

I got turned down by a few clinics because of the weird shape of my corneas. I always had slight astigmatism that wasn't a problem until I did the pre-LASIK exams. They almost thought I had a degenerative disease that causes the weird shape (keratoconus) that you can't get LASIK with. I finally found a doctor who was comfortable with doing my eyes since he's the only doctor in the state with the treatment for LASIK-caused degeneration (ectasia). The technology really is moving along.