Dr. Jay Rosen was recently featured in one of our favorite magazines- Living Local.
Customizing Contact Lenses
FINDING CONTACTS THAT WORK
For some people with vision problems, putting in and taking out contact lenses every day is as second nature as brushing your teeth. But for others, it seems an impossible task that sometimes doesn’t deliver the desired results.
Dr. Jay Rosen has made a name for himself in Southwest Florida over the last twenty-plus years. As an expert in his field of optometry, he specializes in finding contacts that work for patients with cornea issues, such as keratoconus, and those who have other challenging conditions.
SURFACE CHANGES
Keratoconus is a progressive thinning of the cornea that causes it to bulge. Dr. Rosen explains, “The surface becomes irregular. Neither glasses nor soft lenses will work because they translate a bad image and blur vision. Hard lenses help to create a new surface, but most doctors have trouble fitting them.”
That’s one of the things that happened to Susan Kane. Struggling for years trying to make contacts work, she laughs, “I was a contact failure. I couldn’t get them in; I couldn’t take them out. They would stick to my eyes.” Then she met Dr. Rosen and remembers, “He said ‘you won’t be a failure with me.’ ”
She had three laser surgeries, which changed the surface of her eye. As she aged, the surface continued changing at a rapid rate. Kane remembers, “I was seeing Dr. Rosen every month to get things stable and get the right contacts. We kept working until we got it right.”
“If anybody can fit you correctly, it is Dr. Rosen; and if anyone can teach you how to put in contacts, it’s his assistant Carrie. They are the perfect team,” says Kane.
As a law enforcement officer, seeing clearly is crucial to her job. Now she doesn’t need to keep multiple glasses on hand and she is able to put her contacts in with ease every day.
TAKING RESPONSIBILITY
“Contact lenses are one of those things that people have a laissez-faire attitude about,” says Dr. Rosen. “But they are medical devices that can cause permanent changes to your eyes, so there is a responsibility to take care of them correctly.” That includes removing them and wearing them as instructed by your doctor and according to manufacturers directions.
Dr. Rosen cautions, “A lot of people over-wear them and get infections that in the worst-case scenario, can lead to blindness.” He adds, “One of the worst things you can do is sleep with contacts in.”
While they improve your vision, contacts decrease the amount of oxygen that gets to the eye. If you don’t take them out when you are supposed to, that lack of oxygen can compromise the eye, leading to bacterial infections, swelling, and a host of other problems.
“Contacts are like a sponge pulling moisture out of cornea,” says Dr. Rosen. If dry eye is something you suffer from and want to wear contacts, it is very important to treat that condition. He also advises the use of artificial tears (not natural tears) throughout the day for contact wearers.
But his number one advice is, “Get your eyes checked regularly.”
CHANGING LIVES
Besides his expertise in the field, Dr. Rosen’s patients almost always comment on his patience, his caring bedside manner, and his wit. A personable doctor who remembers faces and names, he says, “I enjoy people. I talk to my patients about their lives not just their eyes.”
Not to mention, he says, “It feels good to help people who can’t see. It changes their lives.”
