J&J Vision’s Hirdesh Nair, Ying Zhao, Alisha Walker, Dr Kurt Moody, Michelle Ho, Liyi Tan and Bradley John at the Auckland launch

Designed to bring relief to contact lens wearers struggling with the impact of screen use on the ocular surface, Johnson & Johnson Vision’s latest innovation, the Acuvue Oasys Max 1-Day contact lens is now available as spherical and multifocal.

Development lead Dr Kurt Moody, J&J's director of ocular surface disease and professional strategy, said adults now spend an average of 13 hours a day looking at screens. “When we are on digital devices, we blink less and that contributes to a drop in tear film dynamics… (creating) dryness and irritation. Your tear film is also the first refracting media, so these issues also affect the quality of your vision.”

As eyecare practitioners know, it’s common for patients, especially contact-lens wearers, to say their eyes feel dry and irritated at the end of the day, which affects their vision, he said. “All of these problems were the reasons we felt we needed to do something to lift the bar and improve vision and comfort, and that's what we have done with Max.”

In clinical trials of Acuvue Oasys Max 1-Day, nearly 90% of wearers reported all-day comfort and a reduction in tired eyes from digital devices, while nearly 100% of trial participants agreed the lenses provided clear, reliable vision. The magic lies in the addition of a chromophore molecule to the lens material, said Dr Moody. The chromophore selectively filters out specific wavelengths of light, in this case 380-450 nanometres, the blue and violet spectrum. It offers 60% blue-violet light filtering (the highest in the market), thus reducing the light scattering effect which many people find disturbing, especially when driving at night, he said.

Adding the chromophore also provided another nice little feature, said Dr Moody. “The PvP (polyvinylpyrrolidone), which is our internal wetting agent, became more optimally distributed and that made the lens more comfortable because we're driving more of that PvP to the surface. It's still permanently embedded in the lens, but thanks to this technology, we're creating a more stable tear film and we've been able to measure that. Max has an eye-evaporation rate half of that compared to some of our competitors. So creating a material that will allow your tears to stay more adherent to your contact lens for longer improves comfort and it will also improve vision.”

J&J’s web simulator demonstrating the visual clarity offered with Acuvue Oasys Max 1-Day (left) 

In practice, Dr Moody suggested practitioners ask clients how many hours they spend on a digital device (if it’s more than 10, they are likely to have compromised comfort and vision) and if they experience lens discomfort or fluctuating vision towards the end at day. “If they answer yes to any of those questions – and I would expect it's probably going to be the majority of patients – tell them there's a new product with blue-light filtering technology and ask them if they’d like to trial it.”

When he was in practice, he always wanted to tell his patients about the newest innovations, he said. “I never wanted any of my patients to come in for a regular exam and then hear about some new innovation from a friend, relative or neighbour. That would have meant I wasn’t doing my job, my due diligence to the patient.”

Of particular relevance for Australasian wearers, he added, is that the UVA and UVB filter in Acuvue Oasys Max 1-Day lenses has also been improved further, now blocking 99.9% UVA rays and 100% UVB rays compared to Acuvue Oasys 1-day, which offered a 96.8% UVA and 99.9% UVB block.