Contact LensesKenDaniels. Thorofare, NJ: Slack Inc. 1999. Pages: 192. Price: 30. 00. ISBN 1‐55‐642‐345‐4.

Contact Lenses Ken Daniels. Thorofare, NJ: Slack Inc. 1999. Pages: 192. Price: 30. 00. ISBN 1-55-642-345-4. Contact Lenses is one of a series entitled “The Basic Bookshelf for Eyecare Professionals. ” These books are designed as “quality educational material for professionals in all branches of eye care. ” This particular book is directed toward certification examination information for assistants, technicians, and opticians. Icons are used throughout the book to designate the information that is required by the individual disciplines. By the author's own admission, the book touches only the surface of the field of contact lenses. It is therefore not a reference source for the optometrist in practice but could serve as a useful tool for staff and assistants. The author's experience in clinical practice shines through when he describes patient introduction and fitting. Those eye care practitioners that are in private practice will find the concepts of practice building useful. Contact Lenses is divided into 12 chapters that flow through the initial understanding of anterior segment anatomy and the interaction of contact lenses and the tear film to specialty contact lens fittings. There is a logical progression of the presentation of material from basic lens design and fitting to patient instruction and handling to contact lens verification. Each chapter begins with a list of key points that are addressed in the following pages. This useful technique makes the chapter much more understandable and can serve as a review once the book is completed. Chapter 3, titled “Patient Selection and Examination Procedures, ” is an example of a practical and well-written chapter. The key points include instructing staff to introduce contact lenses to patients in their introduction to the office. The use of surveys within the office to elicit patient interest in contact lenses is also a useful tool of internal marketing. The hands-on use of a cylinder sensitivity test that allows the fitter to determine the patient's ability to wear spherical lenses is very practical. Unfortunately, the key points do not include the important aspect of screening the patient through slit lamp examination. The text lists a number of procedures involved in anterior segment examination but there is no indication of whom not to fit. This is a significant omission in an instructional book. Chapter 5, titled “Rigid Gas Permeable Design, ” is another well designed chapter. The key points include choosing a base curve and fitting evaluation using fluorescein. The text describes these issues well and the diagrams are very useful. However, the fitting alignments are difficult to understand visually with the black and white photographs. Chapter 7 is the most useful chapter for assistants, because it reviews a step-by-step approach to teaching insertion and removal. Here the photographs are most useful and all aspects of education of the patient are covered in a concise and logical fashion. The last paragraph stresses that the patient must understand that they have a role in maintaining their eye health by checking their vision and observing the whiteness of their eyes on a daily basis. This chapter should be read by all technicians involved in patient training. Because the book does not purport to be a reference text, there is no need for extensive references. However, there are several poorly referenced chapters, the most glaring of which is the first chapter, “Contact Lenses and Ocular Anatomy. ” The paragraph on tear film and tear function is filled with details of the composition of the tear film that have no reference of any kind. Because these facts are controversial at best, the reader deserves references to other texts for further exploration. The grammatical and text errors that are present throughout are another negative aspect of the book. In the first paragraph of page 3, a list of lens materials is given with no clear sentence structure and an apparent misuse of brackets. Page 33 begins, “Hydrogel lens are classified. ” Page 90 states that “… the incorporation of preservatives may demonstrate a higher incidence of hypersensitivity reactions…. ” Although these errors do not rob the reader of the meaning of the text, they do distract from its impact. Contact Lenses is a very useful book because it is practical, organized, and easy to understand. Students, assistants, technicians, and any staff members who interact with patients will enjoy reading and reviewing various chapters of this book as their knowledge base increases.