Given the negative impact on quality of life that complex corneal disease can have, finding the right treatment that offers the most relief is essential. Sadly, few people are finding satisfaction.
In BFS’ 2010 Patient Survey , over 1,000 people living with corneal disease shared their satisfaction with different treatments. We learned that the majority are experiencing little to no success with a majority of the options available! And, when one treatment does not prove to be effective, people tend to move on to something new.
Would you be surprised to learn that ophthalmologists think there should be different– and better– treatment options available too? In a survey of 245 ophthalmologists (including more than 50 cornea specialists) treating patients with moderate to severe dry eye disease, 94% agreed there was a need for more treatment options! Only 5% thought what was available was extremely or very effective for severe dry eye, and most were recommending four or more treatment approaches to their patients over the course of a year.
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Perhaps not surprisingly, ophthalmologists identified “maintaining & protecting” and “lubricating & hydrating” the ocular surface as the top two goals of dry eye treatment.
The three key characteristics of successful therapies they identified were:
- “Ability to provide continuous relief”
- “Patient acceptance”
- “Ability to use long term”
Finally, when asked about the most important criterion for success, they ranked “relief of symptoms/patient satisfaction,” “prevention of damage to the cornea,” and “improved vision” at the top.
At the risk of tooting our own horn, there is a shining star among the available treatments: PROSE. To remind our readers, the primary long-term benefits of PROSE treatment is that it:
- Reestablishes a healthy and stable ocular surface environment that provides constant lubrication/hydration, supports healing and reduces symptoms
- Improves blurry vision by masking surface corneal irregularities and transmitting a sharp image to the back of the eye
- Prevents damage by protecting and shielding the cornea and conjunctiva against the environment and eyelids
PROSE can boast that 80% of patients surveyed reported experiencing significant success. Our published clinical research, which includes assessments with the National Eye Institute’s Visual Function Questionnaire (VFQ-25), a widely-used and accepted patient-centered measure of improved visual function and quality of life, reports similarly high levels of success.
When you combine our high level of success with the fact that PROSE meets ALL of the top standards of care for dry eye treatment identified by ophthalmologists across the country, you would think that many more patients with severe dry eye would be sent for a PROSE consult … but that’s fodder for a later discussion.
What do you and your eye doctor think about your treatment options?