Just Scratching the Surface

You know the story; it might even be your story. Graduate optometry school with a lot of enthusiasm—and a lot of debt. Pick up all the extra days you can just to stay afloat financially. Now you’re in the high-volume, low-reward daily grind of refraction, primary eye care and the same old conversations with patients about what astigmatism is. Hello, burnout.What to do? For Ada Noh, OD, the answer was to commit to a specialty concentration in dry eye, forgoing the trappings of routine eye care—bye-bye, phoropter!—for the intellectual stimulation of advanced care and the risks and rewards of self-employment.Dr. Noh describes her journey to specialty practice with great anecdotes about how she came to face her fears about starting cold, in an unfamiliar new city to boot. Job one was building a referral base and that meant embracing self-promotion far and wide to optometrists, ophthalmologists, other health care professions and frankly anyone else who’d hear her out. She says giving up primary care entirely rather than the half-a-loaf approach of adding a dry eye clinic to a general practice was a winning strategy, as other eyecare providers had no reason to see her as a threat. Instead, she became a resource to them.Addressing the misconception that you need to sink a lot of money into a specialty practice, Dr. Noh reassures listeners that you could start without much more than a slit lamp and a bottle of Fluress if you want. It’s the extra time and attention you give patients that often makes a decisive difference to them. She does also share her thoughts on the most helpful devices to add—notably, meibography and IPL—as you ramp up over time.Throughout the episode, Dr. Noh returns to the themes of believing in yourself and having the tenacity to take on whatever comes your way. “Don’t wait for ‘perfect’ because it’s not gonna come,” she counsels. The rewards for all this hard work and risk-taking go beyond the financial. She has more autonomy than ever before.Amazingly, Dr. Noh is about to take the plunge a second time. Having recently sold the practice she started only a few years ago, she’s moving to a bigger market and will do it all over again, beginning this fall. Stay tuned for future updates on her second (or maybe third?) act!Relevant articles worth reading:“Why Isn’t My Dry Eye Therapy Working?”By Ada Noh, ODDive Into Dry EyeWith advice from Cory Lappin, OD, Hamza Shah, OD, Michelle Hessen, OD, and Erica Udell, ODPathways to Specialization: Find–and Follow–Your CallingWith advice from Kelly Cohen, OD, Emilie Seitz, OD, Rami Aboumourad, OD, Joseph Sowka, OD, Cory Lappin, OD, Marie Homa-Palladino, OD, Langis Michaud, OD, Michael Cymbor, OD, Erin Tomiyama, OD, PhD, and Diane T. Adamcyzk, OD

Dry eye specialist Cory Lappin, OD, of Cincinnati shares insights on IPL that he’s developed from many years of performing the procedure. Dr. Lappin begins with a clear and concise explanation of how light interacts with pigment at the cellular level to “kick-start” meibocyte activity and target telangiectatic blood vessels. He addresses common misconceptions about IPL, taking care to explain that it is a non-laser and non-thermal procedure, as a way of understanding where it fits in among dry eye interventions.From there, Drs. Lappin, Abbott and Pucker discuss ideal candidates—most notably those with ocular rosacea but also many typical MGD patients—and how to discern their suitability based on Fitzpatrick skin type. The trio also delves into cautions and contraindications in patients on doxycycline, those with active herpetic outbreaks, epilepsy patients, people with skin conditions like melasma and the hazards posed by eyeliner tattoos.A discussion on technique explains the three main protocols for IPL—Toyos (high fluence), Epstein (overlapping lower-fluence pulses) and Periman (full-face treatment)—and how choice of light filter can affect results.The conversation concludes with practical tips for patient education on IPL and how to establish a schedule for treatment (beginning with four sessions at a minimum) and long-term monitoring (ideally every three to six months thereafter). Dr. Lappin also gives advice for clinicians who are interested in adding IPL but apprehensive: gain confidence by thoroughly understanding it first, start with ocular rosacea patients and others likely to get great results, and don’t feel you have to sell the patient—educate, don’t attempt to “convince,” and let them decide for themselves. Relevant articles worth reading:Ocular Rosacea: How to Recognize and ReactBy Kaleb Abbott, OD, MS The Role of Intense Pulsed Light in OSD ManagementBy Harriette Canellos, OD, and Christina Canellos, OD When IPL PrevailsEdited by Paul C. Ajamian, OD Tackle MGD with These Hands-on InterventionsBy Mila Ioussifova, OD, and Hardeep Kataria, OD