ADVERTORIAL
ABB OPTICAL GROUP has a lot to offer your practice. But beyond business reviews and purchasing advice, its fitting consultants can help with your most challenging contact lens fits. The team of specialty contact lens fitting consultants can help you achieve the best fit possible for your patients.
ABB OPTICAL GROUP: Learn More
ABB OPTICAL GROUP Specialty Contact Lens Fitting Consultants bring a cumulative 175 years of GP lens and Soft Contact Lens expertise to the marketplace. Our team consists of master opticians, expert fitters and experienced business professionals whose goal is to assist Eye Care Professionals with their difficult gas permeable and soft contact lens fits.
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Ann Shackelford, NCLE-AC, director of specialty lens fitting consultation at ABB OPTICAL GROUP, states, “It’s our job to ensure the success of our practitioners and their patients. Each time a practitioner calls, whether about a pair of single-vision lenses or a more challenging lens fit, they connect with a network of experienced individuals with a commitment to help them succeed.”
The team of fitting consultants at ABB OPTICAL GROUP have probably heard just about every kind of question about specialty contact lens fittings. Some practitioners call for a finer point of adjusting an Rx; others call to deliver some key measurements and ask the consultant to design the lens from there.
“We get callers who say, ‘The patient is in my chair wearing this kind of lens and it’s fitting high or low.’ Maybe we will ask the ECP to describe the fluorescein pattern or the ECP may video the movement and send that. The calls or e-mails we receive range from K’s and refraction to design single-vision lenses or ask “should I consider a bitoric or front toric lens.” Whatever level of help people want, we can provide it,” says Shackelford, who has been consulting on GP lens fits for 36 years.
“All of our consultants have been here a long time,” she says. “We understand the lens designs for any lens in our portfolio and the designs for any competitor’s lenses. That’s important because if a practitioner wants to convert someone from another brand, it’s good to know what kind of adjustments to make,” Shackelford says.
The team is also available to assist office staff when they have questions related to national testing. “Our team is here to support not only the practitioner, but the office staff as well. We often receive phone calls from staff asking us to explain questions in their study manual to prepare for the NCLE exam,” Shakelford explains.
That means that any ECP or office staff who calls the 800 ABB OPTICAL GROUP number and presses option 4 for consultations will be able to reach one of the 9 consultants between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. eastern time. “You can call us or you can e-mail us. We also have a live chat feature on abboptical.com where you can talk with us.” Often senior consultants will even drop in local offices at the practitioners request to aid with fitting a patient. Consultants will also follow up a week or two down the road with the practitioner to see how the patient is doing with the lenses that were designed or adjusted.
Our consultants have had extensive training on fitting scleral lenses, including expertise in ICD 16.5, Jupiter, Menicon XL, and Zen lens. ABB OPTICAL GROUP also provides over ten multifocal lens designs which include five proprietary signature multifocal designs to help you fit the full range of your presbyopic patients.
The consultants can answer questions about any product that ABB OPTICAL GROUP manufactures or distributes. Shackelford says, “We deal with a number of outside vendors, so it’s important to realize that during the consultation, we will recommend the lens design that is most appropriate for the patient. It won’t always be an ABB OPTICAL GROUP design, but it will be the best choice for your patient.”
