The College of Optometrists

Could someone tell me what the shared care scheme involves, what conditions it's for and how its run? We dont do it in our area and I need to know about it for my assessment.

Another questions regarding RGP specification.... if you want to change a parameter of a lens but keep the same fluorescein pattern what do you do? If you increase the TD by o.5, you increase BOZR by 0.05 but do you also have to change the power aswel?

Thanks

There are a variety of shared care schemes relating to glaucoma monitoring, post cataract assessment, Ophthalmic triage etc. They are all different and vary from area to area. I would recommend looking at the AOP website which has a section on shared care schemes.

You do not need to change the power to maintain the same flourescein pattern, only to maintain vision if changing the other other lens parameters creates a positive of negative tear lens.

yes = changing a BOZR by 0.05 creates a change in power by 0.25, so you must include that as well as changing the diameter to keep the fluorescein pattern the same.

So steeping the BOZR will need a change in contact lens power by -ve to counteract the increased power of the tear lens. eg: corneal lens of -3.00 BOZR 8.00mm. to be reordered as BZOR 7.95mm -3.25ds.

The trick bit is as Tim says - if you don't plan to change the tear film -then you don't have to correct for any changes of tear lens power. You could simply reduce the size of the lens, forexample : that would keep the fl. pattern the same - but the fitting of the lens may change as may its ride. So, this is a bit of a trick question.

any more? steve

Thanks for the reply.

So if you had a lens 8.00/9.0/+3.00 but you wanted to flatten it but same fl. pattern it would be 8.05/9.5/+3.25 ?

Why would you want to keep the same fl.pattern on a lens if parameters had to be changed? would the lens not show that it needed to be steepened?

How can u not "plan on changing the tear film" if there are rules for changing parameters i.e power and bozr?

Also if you had a lens that was steep 7.8/9.0/+3.00 and you needed to flatten it can you simply just change BOZR?

Still trying to get my head around it. Thanks