Uncontrolled Selling of Contact Lenses

• Published in: Turk oftalmoloji gazetesi 2015-05, Vol.45 (3)
• Main Authors: Sundu, Cem, Dinç, Erdem, Sari, A Ayça, Yildirim, Özlem, Temel, Gülhan Ö
• Format: Article
• Language: eng ; tur
• ISSN: 1300-0659; 2147-2661
• DOI: 10.4274/tjo.42713

Objectives: To evaluate the opticians' perspective about selling and applying contact lenses (CL) in the provincial centre of Mersin. Ma­te­ri­als and Met­hods: Twenty opticians who work in the 4 main districts in the provincial centre of Mersin were included in the study. A questionnaire form which was prepared before was filled out by the participants. Re­sults: Seventy-eight percent of the opticians were selling CL without prescription, whereas 25% also carried out its fitting. Seventy-five percent of the participants did not get any education about contact lenses, while 65% of them were feeling themselves disqualified about CLs. Furthermore, half of the participants did not have enough knowledge about the complications associated with CL usage and 75% of them wanted to receive information about CLs. Conclusion: As a result of the questionnaire, we found out that a significant part of the participants were both selling and fitting contact lenses without prescription. We believe that auditing the opticians is as important as educating the contact lens users. (Turk J Ophthalmol 2015; 45: 102-104)