Objectives:
To evaluate the opticians’ perspective about selling and applying contact lenses (CL) in the provincial centre of Mersin.
Materials and Methods:
Twenty opticians who work in the 4 main districts in the provincial centre of Mersin were included in the study. A questionnaire form which was prepared before was filled out by the participants.
Results:
Seventy-eight percent of the opticians were selling CL without prescription, whereas 25% also carried out its fitting. Seventy-five percent of the participants did not get any education about contact lenses, while 65% of them were feeling themselves disqualified about CLs. Furthermore, half of the participants did not have enough knowledge about the complications associated with CL usage and 75% of them wanted to receive information about CLs.
Conclusion:
As a result of the questionnaire, we found out that a significant part of the participants were both selling and fitting contact lenses without prescription. We believe that auditing the opticians is as important as educating the contact lens users.
Keywords: lens, uncontrolled selling, education