AOA 2026: Addressing contact lens challenges

Melody Tavakoli, OD, gave an interview of her presentation titled “Clearing the View: Contact Lens Challenges” from AOA Optometry’s Meeting 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. Her primary motivation is to educate both doctors and paraoptometrics about the broad spectrum of potential issues associated with contact lens wear. She categorized complications into microbial, inflammatory, mechanical, and allergic reactions, emphasizing that many of these are preventable with appropriate patient education and proper lens hygiene.

A key theme of her talk is that the biggest challenge is patient compliance. Many patients fail to change their contact lens solution regularly, neglect to replace their cases, or overwear their lenses beyond the recommended schedule. Rather than using leading or closed questions such as “Do you change your lenses monthly or daily?”, she favors open-ended questions like “How often do you change your contacts?” and “How often do you change your case?” These inquiries often reveal that patients are unaware they were even supposed to change their cases, underscoring significant gaps in initial education.

Tavakoli noted that the annual contact lens fitting visit is a crucial opportunity to reinforce education. At that time, she revisits the pros and cons of contact lens wear, care instructions, and safety considerations, recognizing that the initial fitting is usually overwhelming for patients who are focused on insertion and removal techniques. She describes this ongoing education as essentially “saving patients from themselves.”

She highlighted dryness and discomfort as the most common but frequently overlooked issues in contact lens wearers. Many patients, and sometimes clinicians, simply accept dryness as a given. She recommends asking patients, “What time of day would you want to take out your contacts?” to pinpoint when discomfort begins and to guide management, especially given new technologies for dry eye and lens materials.

Tavakoli strongly favors transitioning patients from reusable to daily disposable (single-use) lenses when possible. She finds that single-use lenses improve comfort and compliance while reducing complications, particularly for part-time or “social” wearers who may only use lenses weekly or monthly and are less consistent with cleaning and case maintenance.

Finally, she mentioned that her lecture concludes with staff-focused slides designed to improve telephone triage when patients call with eye complaints. Because many contact lens complications share similar symptoms—redness, irritation, light sensitivity, pain, and discharge—she stressed the importance of careful history-taking. Questions about onset, severity, which eye is affected, and symptom progression help determine whether the patient needs an urgent same-day appointment or can safely wait for the next available slot. This structured approach supports better clinical decision-making and timelier care for potentially serious contact lens–related problems.