prescribing
for astigmatism
Internet Resources for You and Your Patients
BY
TIMOTHY B. EDRINGTON, OD, MS, FAAO, AND LONG D. TRAN, OD
The Internet can be a wonderful source of information
for practitioners as well as for patients. We've found the following Web sites to
be most useful and easy to maneuver.
Cross-Cylinder Sites
Several sites let you enter soft toric trial lens over-refraction
data to obtain a suggested sphere, cylinder and axis correction using resultant
cross-cylinder calculations.
Coopervision.com and
eyedock.com are two that provide
this useful tool. However CooperVision's program doesn't consider lens rotation
in their calculations. (To access CooperVision's site without registering, go to
http://toriccalculator.coopervision.com.)
The Palm Pilot savvy can also download handheld versions of these
calculators. Eyedock.com offers a downloadable link to CooperVision's version. From
PalmGear.com you can purchase and download the Contact Lens Calculator+, which contains
eight handy contact lens and refractive calculators.
Parameter Availability
Most contact lens practitioners keep a current copy of Tyler's
Quarterly or the Contact Lenses & Solutions Summary (an annual supplement to
Contact Lens Spectrum, also available online at
www.clspectrum.com/class) nearby
to determine if a needed lens power or axis is available. As proactive prescribers
of silicone hydrogel lenses, we often need quick access to current parameter and
design availability. If you don't subscribe to these guides, you can find this information
quickly and easily online at eyedock.com. One feature we especially enjoy is its
listing of anticipated extended parameter options and approximately when they'll
become available.
Bitoric Helpers
The Mandell-Moore guide can assist practitioners in designing
bitoric GP lenses using kerato- metry readings (or simulated K readings) and the
manifest refraction. This guide is available online at
rgpli.org.
Con-cise.com also
offers a helpful online tutorial to accompany the Mandell-Moore guide.
Patient Education
Patients diagnosed with irregular astigmatism or other rare conditions
such as keratoconus often desire additional sources of information about their conditions.
Many sites sell procedures or products, but excellent sites exist that provide unbiased
patient education and support. The National Keratoconus Foundation (nkcf.org) allows
patients to download information on keratoconus and penetrating keratoplasty. It
also lists patient resources and provides a forum for patients and their family
members to ask questions. Other sites for keratoconus patients include
allaboutvision.com,
stlukeseye.com and
eyemdlink.com
Practitioner Education
Several sites offer article and photograph archiving.
Clspectrum.com
archives (by subject, author and publication month) past and present articles and
columns. Redatlas.org,
nei.nih.gov and
odwire.org are excellent sources for downloading
photographs of corneal conditions. Current research about silicone hydrogels is
available at siliconehydrogels.org, and
rgpli.org offers fluorescein patterns and
GP lens fitting tips.
We know that this is just a small portion of sites relative to
contact lenses available on the World Wide Web. If you have a favorite site that
you'd like to share with our readers, please e-mail your suggestions and a brief
description of the site's contents to tedrington@scco.edu. Selected sites may be
published in a future issue.
Dr. Edrington is a professor
at the Southern California College of Optometry. E-mail him at
tedrington@scco.edu.
Dr. Tran is a clinical instructor at the Southern California College of Optometry.
E-mail him at ltran@scco.edu.
Contact Lens Spectrum, Issue: April 2006