- All right guys,
welcome to the Eyecare and Wellness Channel.
Today we're gonna talk about
generic contact lens solutions.
They can be the ones from CVS, Target, Walmart, Walgreens,
wherever you go to get your generic contact lens solution,
and why or why not you should be using it.
If that interests you, stick around.
(energetic music)
All right guys,
so today we're gonna talk about
generic contact lens solutions.
If you use them, this should be really helpful.
Before we get started,
if you like what I have to say,
please consider hitting that like button,
subscribe to the channel if you'd like to see more
of what I have to say.
And if you haven't been here before,
I'm Joel Hayden
and this is the EyeCare and Wellness Channel,
and welcome.
So, let's get at it.
So the first reason that I tell my patients
that I would prefer to have them in a brand name
contact lens solution is just that
the generics have very poor technology.
There's nothing new.
They've been using the same solutions in those for years.
And the newer brand name contact lens solutions,
those companies are constantly
trying to improve on their solutions.
So they're improving the buffer,
they're improving the disinfectant,
they're improving the wettability
and how how much more comfortably your contacts will be
by using their brand.
With the generics, you don't get that.
So I've had many patients who have gone from brand names
over to generics and it didn't take long for them
to come right back,
because they were in the same lens
and they had a pretty good idea that it was the solution
that was the problem.
So that's number one.
Number two.
One of the issues that people run into
and they don't realize it,
and when I see this,
it usually takes me a patient or two
to figure out that it had happened.
They're going to their same retailer
and buying their generic brand of contact lens solution.
And they don't think about it.
They look at the shelf,
it's the same bottle and they throw it in the cart
and away they go.
And then all of a sudden, maybe three years in,
they're like, "Man, my contacts are really bothering me.
What's wrong?
The comfort isn't there, my eyes are red.
What's going on?"
So they usually come in to see me.
And my first guess is that whoever it is,
let's pick on Target today.
And this is no dig against Target,
but if you're using the Target brand
and then all of a sudden three years in you're like,
"Something's changed, something's wrong."
Every five years or so these major retailers
will contract out to a new contact lens company.
And the new contact lens company will then,
in turn, get changed.
And you're putting a totally different contact lens solution
in your eye, and your eye doesn't like it.
And we have to either get you back to a brand name
or try to figure out what else to do.
That's when we usually move people into the Clear Care,
which is the hydrogen peroxide based solution.
So that's number two.
Number two is that those manufacturers
can change that solution,
keep the exact same bottle,
and you look at that bottle and go,
"Oh, that's my bottle."
And you grab it, but what's inside is totally different
than what you got last time.
So that's number two.
The last is number three.
Number three is what I'm going to show you
is from a contact lens aisle at CVS.
Just to show you some of the confusion that can occur
in the marketplace.
All right, let's take a look.
Okay, so here we are.
You want me not cut my face off?
Here we are in contact lens aisle at a major pharmacy.
And what I want to point out is that next to the Biotrue,
they have their own generic here.
And next to the Opti-Free, they have their own generic here.
And next to the ReNu
they have their own generic right here.
And one would think that this is the same as this,
and this is the same as this,
the Opti-Free and Pure Comfort.
Puremoist by Opti-Free,
Pure Comfort is their generic.
The ReNu down here versus their multi-purpose solution.
So you would think that this would be very similar to this.
This would be very similar to this,
and the Pure Comfort very similar to the Opti-Free,
when in many cases,
and I did not go through every one of these at CVS,
but in many of the cases,
whether it be Walgreens, Walmart, Target,
this one, this one,
all three of the generics that are next to the brand names
are the same with nothing different
than the color of the print on the box
to make it look like the one next to it.
So I'd call that a little confusion in the marketplace.
I'm not picking on CVS because I actually don't know.
They may be similar in some way.
But I will tell you,
they are not what's in the brand named bottle,
and they probably are not even close.
All right, guys, so that's it.
Those are the three things that make me say
you probably should be with a brand name
contact lens solution.
The first was the poor technology
that they're not updating anything
when it comes to the generics.
Number two is that they change the generics
from time to time and you may not know it.
And all of a sudden you're putting it in
and you're having a major issue
with your contact lenses or your eye.
Number three is that you may think that you're using
the brand named repackaged as another one,
when in most cases you're not.
So there they are,
the three reasons that I think
that you should probably use a brand name
contact lens solution instead of a generic.
I hope this was helpful.
If you liked what I had to say,
please hit that like button,
please subscribe to the channel.
I promise I'm gonna do my best to give you some good stuff
when it comes to eyecare and wellness going forward.
And other than that, take care.