Contact Lens Solutions

[osmar]

I have hard contact lenses. All the cleaning solutions in Thailand appear to be for soft contact lenses.

Can anyone advise please.

Thanks

Carl

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

Same here. I knew there was a problem getting RGP (rigid gas permeable) solutions in Thailand, so when I moved here, I brought a 2 year supply. I'm thinking that a large private hospital might be able to get these. I've asked about this on other boards, and no one seems to have a clue. After 35 years of wearing hard lenses, if I can't get the solutions, I am going to switch to soft contact lenses.

[Inthai]

there's a shop on 2nd floor Central Silom selling Boston Advanced products, check it out, this is only optician seen selling them, name of shop is Wellington as far as i remember

[zaphodbeeblebrox]

there's a shop on 2nd floor Central Silom selling Boston Advanced products, check it out, this is only optician seen selling them, name of shop is Wellington as far as i remember

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[Inthai]

my pleasure!

took me some time to find this shop but Bangkok is a city where any product from around world can be found, so definitely there must a business selling solutions for hard lenses, Wellington is way to go!!

Secret's OUT!

Cheers!

[osmar]

Thank you for this help. much appreciated.

Carl

[sprq]

You might inquire at Rutnin Eye Hospital, the nation's leading opthalmologist.

Call 02 639 3333 / 3399

[jm49er1]

there's a shop on 2nd floor Central Silom selling Boston Advanced products, check it out, this is only optician seen selling them, name of shop is Wellington as far as i remember

if you are in Pattaya you can also buy Boston Advance products for gas permeable lens at Siam Drug store in the Big C shopping center on 2nd road - first floor - there are stocked as a regular product - both the cleaning solution and the wetting solution

[ColinChapman]

Also Siam Eye Clinic, 420/5-6 Siam Square Soi 1, 02 251 9576 or 02 252 9474, who also sell RGP contact lenses. I have had several pairs from them, very comfortable, no problems.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

there's a shop on 2nd floor Central Silom selling Boston Advanced products, check it out, this is only optician seen selling them, name of shop is Wellington as far as i remember

A bit of an update here... I was noodling around in the Silom Complex yesterday and spotted a shop there on the second floor with both Boston cleaning and soaking solution bottles in their window display. They gave me a card with the name Rajadamri Optical. Not sure if it's the same one referenced above, but I'd suspect so.

But since the Silom Complex will be closing for renovation in Jan. 2011, the shop operator advised that for the next 6 months to year while the mall is closed that they'll have the same Boston solution products at their other shop nearby in the Thaniya Plaza, which is on the opposite side of Silom Road, second floor, phone 02-632-7597.

The manager of the Silom Complex shop said he did expect that they would reopen their shop there, as well, after the mall renovation is completed. As for pricing, he said they sell the pair of Boston Advance bottles -- one cleanser and one conditioner -- for 650 baht.

Another nearby shop that definitely sells the two Boston brand solutions for RGP lenses is the Paris Miki Optical shop on the second floor of the Siam Center mall next to Siam Paragon. 370 baht for the conditioner and 330 baht for the cleanser.

There also used to be a second shop also on the second floor of the Siam Center that sold the two Boston solutions... But in checking with them this week, they said they no longer stock them and won't for the future.

The thing that's been more difficult for me is finding an eye doctor here who knows anything about fitting and prescribing RGP lenses... I found one M.D. on Sukhumvit Road near Soi 20 who specializes in various aspects of hard contact lenses. Dr. Vitaya Kritalukkul who goes under the business name of Bangkok Refraction Hospital. 02-259-4159.

But I use a special kind of orthokeratology lens that apparently isn't directly available in Thailand. So as best as I recall, the same lens that I have fitted and purchased in the U.S. for around $350 was going to cost about $1,000 here, as best I recollect his quotation. But I don't think I asked him at the time about options for more generic RGP lenses.

If anyone else has direct experience with an eye doctor here who knows their way around prescibing hard contact lenses, both the fitting and acquisition of them, please do chime in with any recommendations.

Every time I find a shop that stocks the RGP solutions, I ask them about a doctor who handles the lenses. And they haven't been much help in that regard thus far.

As for Rutnin Eye Hospital, I've never inquired of them myself. But there have been other past reports by members here indicating that 1) they'd only do full package fitting and lense purchases, not just replacement lenses, and 2) that it's difficult to set up an appointment there with one of their doctors who actually knows anything about RGP lenses, since they always run you thru the eye exam mill first before assigning an eye doctor.

Edited December 24, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just a bit of a GOOD update here for contact lens wearers here, especially HARD/RGB lens wearers such as myself, given those lenses are SO HARD to find and have prescribed here.

Lately, I was able to a) find a BKK OD doctor who specializes in hard contact lenses, and b] was able to order the hard lenses he prescribed via the U.S. lens provider Lens.com, where I paid about $82 for a brand name pair of hard RGB lenses including mailing to my U.S. forwarding address.

It was a bit complicated to navigate, but now I think I have the details down, and it shouldn't be hard for anyone else here to replicate the same path. In fact, I found after the fact, that it might be even easier for some than the process I went thru.

The doctor here I dealt with to obtain the hard lens prescription was Dr. Vitaya (pronounced with a W) Kritalukkul. He has an office on Suk Rd near Soi 20 with the name outside of Bangkok Refraction Hospital (though it's just a small medical office on the ground floor), and seems to work there weekdays from about 9 am to 11 am. The hard lenses he prescribed fit great and I can see crystal clear, so I certainly think he knows his stuff.

It sounds like he also has a larger clinic on Phahonyothin Rd. in the Saphan Mai area called the Bangkok Eye Institute, so I presume he's there in the afternoons. He speaks great English, though it's a bit hit and miss with the female office staff at his Suk Rd. location. Phone there is 02 258 1400.

But, before I dealt with him, I had to check with Lens.com, and found to my pleasure that they will accept contact lens prescription orders from doctors outside the U.S. both for soft and hard lenses (though there's no problem to obtain most soft lenses here, I presume. Hard lenses, however, are a different story).

Here's where things got a bit more complicated, and the Lens.com staff originally didn't fully explain their procedures until after the fact...

They have two different processes for placing lens orders, which can be handled over the phone, by faxing or emailing in an order sheet downloaded/printed from their website, or direct via their website:

One is for orders shipped and billed to addresses inside the U.S. However, they have a somewhat different and easier process for orders shipped and billed to locations outside the U.S. In my case, I had them send the lenses to the U.S. But they will mail directly to addresses outside the U.S. as well.

For orders shipped and billed to U.S. addresses, they require a verification process for the doctor's prescription (I presume to comply with FDA regs.) In that case, I discovered, it means having the doctor fill out all the necessary info on the Lens.com order sheet, you adding your billing and shipping info, and then the following added elements:

--having the doctor sign the order sheet (in addition to writing his name in the specified box).

--having the doctor indicate the date of your eye exam/prescription (the form has no box for that).

--and optionally specifying the expiration date for the prescription (which normally is one year).

What I didn't know until after the fact was.... if the lens order is being billed and shipped to any address outside the U.S., Len.com doesn't have any of the above verification process. They just want the necessary billing and shipping info, along with the necessary prescription info. But all the stuff about doctor's signature and exam date and expiration date goes out the window. At least that's what a Lens.com CSR supervisor assured me today.

And once you've placed a lens order with Lens.com, you can purchase another pair of the same lens (or replace a lost pair) or whatever by just paying the price to do so...without any additional doctor involvement... anytime within a one year period after your prior order.

The fee Dr. Kritallukkul charged for my eye exam and giving me the hard lens prescription was amazingly low... And the Lens.com pricing to purchase the lenses seems quite reasonable...far less than I used to pay when I was buying my hard lenses via my U.S. optometrist. The Lens.com website also is pretty good, and has a lot of info on the various brands and types of lenses they can provide (and those they cant). For example, I was told they won't do bi-focal or multi-focal contact lenses...

But overall, the process was great, and a bargain to boot. So it should put an end to the grief various folks have complained about here re the difficulty of getting hard contact lens prescriptions updated and filled here.

Edited July 26, 2012 by TallGuyJohninBKK