Defining Disorders

2022 • Patient Education

Explaining vision correction to patients can be tricky. It’s easy to say too much and lose them in the process. It’s equally problematic to oversimplify and not share enough.

Here are a few tips to help get the message across.

Tip: Share a cheat sheet, add role-playing to your staff meetings, or create your own lens form that can be used by both staff and patients.

KEEP IT CONSISTENT

From the reception desk to the exam chair, everyone in a practice gets asked questions about vision. That’s one reason it’s so important that all staff is on the same page. Share a cheat sheet, add role-playing to your regular staff meetings, or create your own lens form that can be used by both staff and patients.

2Dr. Szeliga’s lens menu opens into two panels, one with definitions of refractive errors and the other the evolution of multifocals.

That’s why Ron Szeliga, O.D., created a lens menu for his practice, Spring Hill Eyecare, in Spring Hill, TN. The menu opens into two panels, one giving brief definitions of refractive errors and the other describing the evolution of multifocals.

HAVE TWO VERSIONS

Some patients want a quick explanation and others want more detail. Come up with both for your office. Here’s an example of a long and short version of explaining the cosmetic benefits of AR.

Short: “AR lenses reveal your eyes.”

More detailed: “AR lenses provide greater cosmetic performance by eliminating reflections.”

PICTURE THIS

Want to make sure they get it? Take pen to paper. “For all new presbyopes, I basically draw the ‘optic’ and how a progressive works,” says Simaan Shini, O.D., at Eye Trends in College Station, TX.

In the lens menu brochure he created, Dr. Szeliga uses clip art. “Next to definitions of multifocals, there are images of an antique phone, a corded phone, and the latest smartphone to show how just as phone technology has changed, so has lens technology. Below that there is an explanation of digital lenses and an icon of someone being measured for a tailored suit.”

How do you explain vision correction to your patients? Do you use analogies to describe them? Tell us about it and share in the conversation on Facebook here.