Introducing Acuvue 1-Day Moist Multifocal

Contact lens wear after 40 can be a challenge; today's multifocal contact lens designs often leave patients with compromised distance or near vision, or both.  The reason?  Multifocal contact lenses rely on a layered ring design, where rings of distance and near powers through the center of the contact lens create multiple images on the back of the eye that the brain must interpret.  The pattern and width of these rings is different with every contact lens brand design, which is why you can't expect to see the same out of Air Optix Multifocal as you do out of Freshday Multifocal.  One of the biggest limitations of this multiple ring design is that depending on the size of your pupil, you may get too much or not enough of each ring of vision.  And because these lenses are not custom made for your eyes, they either work or they don't -- there's no way to manipulate the ring design for your individual pupil.

Here's where the new Acuvue 1-Day Moist Multifocal design comes in -- researchers at Johnson and Johnson have designed this lens with a variable ring pattern based on the concept that average pupil size changes as we age.  The older we get, the smaller our pupil gets -- which is often one of the reasons that when you need higher reading prescriptions in multifocal contact lenses it tends to be less successful than at low reading adds.  And depending on if you are a -6.00 myope or a +4.00 hyperope, the average person's pupil size at these prescriptions is quite different.  The new Acuvue design incorporates population averaged pupil sizes for these various prescription needs to try to maximize vision at the culprit -- how to match the ring pattern for vision delivery to the amount of room your pupil provides for.

The Lens:
Available +6.00 to -9.00 in low, medium, and high add powers

Acuvue 1-Day Moist platform (8.5 base curve)

The Fitting Guide:

You don't have to measure pupil size or make any pupil determinations -- everything with pupil size is designed into the lens.  

Start with spherical equivalent (vertexed if necessary)

Avoid astigmatism amounts greater than -1.00 DC

Determine dominance

Let the patient have 10 minutes to adapt before checking vision

Select Low, Medium, or High add based on spec Rx add

Trouble Shooting:
Need more distance or near vision?  Johnson and Johnson reports a 94% success rate with < 2 pair of lenses if you follow this guide to enhancements instead of doing your normal +0.25/-0.25 over refraction routine.

My review:
I've had the lens at my office for less about 1 week and have successfully fit one very happy patient who has tried Air Optix Multifocal, Biofinity Multifocal, Synergeyes Duette Progressive, and Freshday Multifocal without satisfactory vision.  Within 2 lenses, he was set and feeling encouraged enough to say this was "the best one yet".  I'll have to try the lens out with a larger sample size of course, but I can feel confident in telling you that if your patients are unhappy with vision in their current lens, this is a real alternative to offer!

I am not affiliated with Johnson and Johnson in any way, and all opinions are my own.  All images are courtesy of education materials distributed by Johnson and Johnson.