Programme

The BCLA Contact Lens Evidence-based Academic Reports (CLEAR) recently summarized the current knowledge of what drives the comfort of lens wear for an individual. This presentation will summarise this know-how and will explore the cost of comfort.   

* How much comfort is enough - hours of wear, contact lenses and patients with dry eye disease or digital eye strain, trade-off between lubricity enhanced comfort and lens handling and how comfortable are spectacle wearers at the end of the day anyway? 

* The cost differential of providing more comfort - premium water gradient or biomimetic lenses, daily disposable vs reusable lens wear and sustainability.

* The cost of not addressing comfort - dropouts, more patient visits and com-plication risk

In our everyday practice we have to deal with a lot of contact lens related challenges. During this session we like to provide you with a lot of hands-on tips & tricks, immediately applicable in your daily practice. All of these beyond science.

Orthokeratology (Ortho-k) was introduced in The Netherlands in 2002. The market grew rapidly till approximately 80.000 happy Ortho-k wearers nowadays. For many years, the typical Ortho-k wearer in The Netherlands was the adolescent and young adult. However, over the last decade there has been a shift towards the fitting of these lenses in children. Particularly due to increasing evidence supporting the use of  Ortho-k contact lens wear for myopia management in children.

The safety of Ortho-k contact lens wear in the general population, but more importantly in the pediatric population is currently a hot topic. Following on the presentation of the historical trend in the uptake of Ortho-K in The Netherlands and based on the latest scientific literature, this session primarily aims at answering the big question: How safe is Ortho-k? Additionally, experience from domestic and foreign markets on how to optimize safety in Ortho-k will be shared, including tips and tricks to implement in your Ortho-k practice tomorrow! 

After a great success at the NCC 2016 and 2018, the NCC continues its scientific collaboration with the BCLA.  Dr. Carolina Kunnen from the NCC organization together with Professor James Wolffsohn of Aston University and the BCLA’s academic team hosted the NCC/BCLA abstract submissions program. The scientific track, parallel to the general education tracks at NCC 2022, is designed to maintain the high reputation developed by the BCLA for showcasing world class clinically relevant research, nurturing new researchers and young academics to present at this level. All abstracts presented during the NCC 2022 meeting will continue to be published in Contact Lens and Anterior Eye (CLAE).

As a contact lens specialist we have, beside our technical activities, also an advising responsibility. Especially when it comes to presbyopic patients, a group of patients that is rapidly expanding. There are a number of opportunities for the correction of presbyopia such as multifocal glasses, contact lenses and multifocal IOL’s. It is difficult to compare the current generation of presbyopes with earlier generations. In the past you were “old” when reaching the age of 50, nowadays it looks like life is only starting. In most cases, presbyopes are active in sport, follow all types of courses and travel around the world. Because of this active lifestyle, they have high demands for their vision at all distances. A pair of glasses is not always convenient and refractive surgery not the first choice that comes in mind. No wonder that this type of customers has great interest in multifocal contact lenses. Therefore, the development of successful multifocal contact lenses has high priority for the industry. Nowadays there is a wide range of presbyopic options in both soft, rgp, ortho-k and even scleral lenses. 

This lecture (in Dutch) explores the possibilities and the limits of what we can offer to our presbyopic patients when it comes to contact lenses.
 

How do we promote the contact lens in practice? Panel discussion with industry led by a communications specialist.
 

This session is not only about prevalence and incidence, but also about the pitfalls in treating and monitoring myopia.
 

This session – in Dutch – will focus on the practical side of myopia management. Three practitioners will, each from a different angle, look at their daily practice and how they incorporate, deal and struggle with myopia in young patients. This session is truly about ‘the future of our practices’ – way beyond the year 2020, and also beyond 20/20 vision. It is about dealing with young patients, their ocular health and their future. All in a ‘classroom setting’, as to illustrate that latter (dealing with kids), but also to illustrate the nature of myopia management: that we are all still in a learning process.

What is the importance of a healthy eyelid when wearing contact lenses and how can we best assess this in clinical practice?

This session – in Dutch – will celebrate the beauty of what contact lenses have to offer to so many satisfied lens wearers, around the world. What better way to illustrate this with music! This session ‘NCC Café will look at the many benefits that lenses can have, but also is a moment to look each other deep into the eyes, and to share and discuss the responsibilities that we have regarding ocular health and safety for instance. This session will test the audience – and not just on their musical knowledge!

New research will be shared, along with an exploration of how, and indeed if, there is a need in the Netherlands to consider recommending them more frequently to patients.

The ocular surface is defended from debris and invading microorganisms by both nonspecific defenses including barrier type defenses and the innate immune system, as well as specific defenses. 

Multiple factors can cause alterations to the ocular surface environment, such as immulogic, neurologic, mechanical, exposure and contact lens wear. These alterations can modify these defenses, increasing the risk of tissue breakdown and infection. 

This presentation will cover the barriers which act to prevent host disease, the impact various disease states have on these barriers, what happens when these defense mechanisms are impeded, and how contact lenses can disrupt these mechanisms or aid in the defense and recovery of these tissues.

Compliance—or let’s be honest Non-compliance—is still a major issue in our day to day practice. Why do patients not follow our, and the manufacturers’, advice on how to handle and use contact lenses?. What tips & tricks can we use to find out if a consumer is compliant, what questions should we ask and, more importantly, how can we tell if a patient is telling the truth? What are the latest numbers on compliance? How safe are contact lenses actually and can we support this with recent research?

In our everyday practice we have to deal with a lot of contact lens related challenges. During this session we like to provide you with a lot of hands-on tips & tricks, immediately applicable in your daily practice. All of these beyond science.

Scleral lenses are a unique modality that is gaining popularity around the world. This presentation will introduce the patient profiles that require scleral lenses. Principles of scleral lens fitting, complications and trou-bleshooting will be addressed. Unique technologies and equipment have been developed to enhance scleral lens fitting and they will be described. Multispecialty collaboration supports the best outcomes for scleral lens patients. The basic ingredients of scleral lens indications, fitting tech-niques, technology all combine to make the perfect cocktail to serve to patients in need of visual rehabilitation, ocular surface treatment and pain relief. All of these themes will be served up to enjoy scleral lens success.

New research will be shared, along with an exploration of how, and indeed if, there is a need in the Netherlands to consider recommending them more frequently to patients.

In this hour, we will take care of 'keratoconus'. In this session with Dutch speakers, in Dutch and focused on the Dutch eye care situation, the focus is on the 'customer journey'.

Starting with the diagnosis: there are quite a few false positives going around. The strangest cases, which are often not cases actually, sometimes do the rounds on various digital forums. First of all, therefore, the question is: how can I recognize a keratoconus with my corneal topographer? And how do I distinguish a keratoconus, for example, from a pellicide marginal degeneration (PMD) – and what is the difference with a keratoglobus? All of these terms are often seen as synonymous with keratoconus – but are different manifestations of primary ectasia. And then there are secondary ectasia (after surgery for example). The next question in these situations is: when should I forward, and what can be done about it? Research at the UMC Utrecht, where two of the experts in this session work,

Then the treatment: what is the role of corneal cross-linking CXL - and what are the indications for this? Is there a role for intra-stromal rings? And who is eligible for a cornea transplant, and what form of it? Is the policy in this regard different for young people than for adults? What to do in case of progression in someone of 40, for example? 

And finally: what could be the role of scleral lenses in all of this? And what role can we as a professional group play in detecting keratoconus and subsequently in guiding the patient? He often ends up in a strange world, sometimes after he came to us for a 'simple' eye exam for glasses (or contact lenses). What is the 'customer journey' to which this person is exposed, and how can we guide it in the best possible way?

Developments to contact lens materials and designs in over recent decades have improved ocular surface health and wearer comfort, but changes to the ocular surface during lens wear can still occur.  This presentation will deliver an overview of physiological and mechanical changes which are associated with currently-prescribed contact lenses, with a particular emphasis on areas which are receiving current research attention.  For changes which are particularly associated with soft contact lenses we will describe two areas which have the exciting potential to help us improve both health and comfort with lens wear: lid wiper epitheliopathy and sub-clinical ocular surface inflammation.  Other topics related to soft lenses will include blinking, ocular surface sensitivity and Meibomian gland changes, in addition to hypoxia which still features in the decision-making process of today’s eyecare professionals.  The presentation will  conclude with a discussion of changes which can occur during the use of rigid corneal and scleral lenses.  This will include epithelial microcysts and bullae, corneal staining and neovascularization.

Presentation of the results from NCC Doing research 2018.

Contact lens practice evolves rapidly and changes are not just limited to new products.  Continued research efforts have put forth evidence sup-porting new ways of working, but there are often long delays before such changes reach our consulting rooms.
 
This session will highlight several commonly held views about contact lens practice - including aspects of ocular surface examination, lens fitting and material choice - and challenge them through use of the available evi-dence.  We are certain that you will make at least one change to your con-tact lens routine after hearing this talk!

Session with the recent insights and information delivered at multiple conferences across the world. For example topics as described in the special Myopia edition of the IOVS (Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science) 2019 & 2021 are:

Defining and Classifying Myopia; Interventions for Myopia Onset and Progression; Clinical Myopia Control Trials and Instrumentation; Clinical Myopia Management Guidelines; Impact of myopia; Risk factors for myopia; Prevention of myopia.

Sit back and enjoy an hour that is full of useful and graphically substantiated practical examples that offer you new insights for your own contact lens practice. At the end of this lecture you will have received practical information about converting corneal maps to lens fittings and you will know how the index values ​​of the corneal topographer can be helpful in the first lens choice. One thing is certain; after following this in-depth lecture you will be fully informed again!