First-time Study Evaluates Real-time Contact Lens Comfort

First-time Study Evaluates Real-time Contact Lens Comfort

Terri Call, OD, was first author of a paper titled Real-Time Ocular Comfort Reporting in Monthly Replacement Contact Lens Wearers. The featured research is the first study to describe real-time contact lens comfort over the life of a monthly replacement contact lens.

For this study, the research team recruited 48 current contact lens wearers who had no underlying ocular disease or dry eye symptoms and who were generally happy with their current lenses. The test subjects were fit with the new Alcon Total30 contact lens and had responded to short comfort-based surveys sent five times throughout the day. Surveys were repeated at regular intervals throughout the life of the lens, allowing the researchers to compare comfort levels at the same time of day, across multiple days.

“For as commonplace and understood as contact lens prescribing is, we don’t actually have a lot of data measuring comfort throughout the life of the lens,” Call said. “This is one of the first studies to look at comfort of the same pair of monthly lenses day after day to assess changes in that comfort. As a current contact lens wearer, and someone who often prescribed based on the pervasive idea that daily disposable lenses always provide superior comfort, I was very interested in the idea that a new monthly lens could challenge that common belief.”

Call and other optometrists work in unison to better alleviate discomfort in contacts for patients so they can use their lenses longer. She believes that if they can understand when and how long-term wear lenses become uncomfortable, they can focus on the development of new lenses in ways to address this discomfort. 

“I’m so grateful for their efforts throughout this process,” Call said. “Dr. Andrew Pucker was the primary investigator and the spearhead of this study. We also had the assistance of Dr. Amy Logan, Quentin Franklin and Dr. Gerald McGwin, all of whom we could not have finished this study without.”

This was the first published paper in Call’s career.

“It was both thrilling and nerve-wracking to have my first paper published,” Call said. “It felt wonderful to know something we’d worked so hard on had been found to have worthwhile academic merit. While I know this is probably old hat to those who publish often, that external validation was very rewarding for me.