The TechShield Formulary is Changing - See How This Can Benefit Your Practice

With the recent change to the VSP ophthalmic product formulary, it’s a great time to explore premium coatings, like TechShield^® Elite and TechShield Blue, which can increase your profitability and help your patients see better, while protecting their lens investment. Read on to learn how AR coatings can help your patients see better, while you reap the rewards of greater profitability when you dispense premium AR coatings.

A Window into Better Health and Vision

Today’s annual eye exams are a far cry from 10 years ago, with new technologies enabling eye doctors to more easily detect, diagnose, and treat eye conditions—from glaucoma to age-related macular degeneration. The latest equipment even makes it possible to identify signs of diabetes and high blood pressure early on, possibly preventing a stroke or other health complications. 

When it comes to solving a patient’s vision challenges, solutions for enhancing sight are just as numerous. Active seniors, outdoor enthusiasts, growing children and anyone desiring to optimize their visual experience can choose from a myriad of options, from progressives to light-reactive lenses, to anti-reflective (AR) coatings. Each plays a unique role in improving a person’s visual acuity.

Anti-Reflective Coatings: Establishing the True Value

During a patient’s appointment, the topic of AR coatings typically falls into the “finishing” stage of the visit. Few patients understand what AR coatings actually are and the benefits they provide, until you tell them. Most believe they have something to do with protecting their lenses or reducing glare. When the patient is ready to wrap up their appointment, those benefits might not seem all that important.

That’s why it’s important to explain the true value of an AR coating: optimizing their vision in every environment.

“Anti-reflective coatings allow more useful light into the eye, so combined with the patient’s precise prescription, they deliver the best visual experience possible.” 

Simply put, an AR coating like TechShield Elite helps a person see better, and should be considered an essential component of every prescription. AR coatings allow more useful light into the eye, so when combined with the patient’s prescription, they deliver a better vision experience. That’s why the phoropter lenses used during an eye exam include an AR coating. So, if a patient doesn’t opt for AR coating, they’re not going to get the same vision experience they received in the exam chair.

Solving Visual Challenges

TechShield Elite enhance a patient’s vision, enabling clearer, more comfortable vision any time, day or night, indoors and out. Patients with astigmatism find that TechShield AR Coatings can minimize the glare and flares from stoplights and street signs. TechShield Elite and TechShield Blue offer superior cleanability, durability, smudge/scratch resistance, and UV protection. 

Patients that spend a lot of time working (or playing) on digital devices can benefit greatly from a blue-light filtering lens. TechShield Blue can help relieve digital eye strain symptoms characterized by blurry, sore, dry and/or red eyes, which can result from as few as two continuous hours of exposure.¹ That’s because TechShield Blue targets blue light wavelengths associated with digital eye strain (400-430nm), reducing exposure by as much as 85% at its peak.² Learn more about blue light.

How to Win Over Your Patients 

What’s the best way to convince your patients to order an AR coating? Start in the exam room, instead of waiting until your patient arrives at the dispensing table. Describe the advantages of an AR coating with respect to working in combination with their prescription to optimize their vision.