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In today’s society, patients are surrounded by glare and discomfort with light. What solutions are you providing for those patients? To address this problem, Dr. Darryl Glover sat down with Guadalupe Leon, a light-sensitive patient, to discuss her light-sensitivity experience as a teenager and how TransitionsⓇ helped change her experience with light.
Guadalupe “Lupe” Leon is from Chicago, IL. She is currently employed at an elementary school as an assistant and just completed her Master’s degree in early elementary education at National Louis University on December 4, 2022.
As an extremely light-sensitive person, she found freedom when she was properly diagnosed and prescribed her first TransitionsⓇ lenses as a young teenager. Now she enjoys the outdoors daily with her rescue dog named Jules.
PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS:
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Darryl Glover: I am super excited today because we have a show that’s going to blow your mind and help you understand how patients think. I like the welcome my guests, Guadalupe Leon. I’m super excited to have you because as eye care professionals, and optometrists, we always think we have all the answers, but actually having a dialogue with a patient is priceless and will help guide us in the right direction.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Dr. Darryl Glover: What created your trust in the eyewear consultants? What made you say, I trust these people?
Lupe: I think it’s like first impressions…Every time I walk in, even though it might be a different person — maybe the person you’re used to is off on that day — the first impression as soon as the person greets me that is the beginning part. Sometimes they’ll strike up a conversation — “oh my God I really love your scarf.” I love that type of small talk because it does not feel like it’s not a transaction. It feels like we’re starting a mutual relationship like acquaintances or friends, and that’s the environment I want to be in when I choose my glasses.
Dr. Darryl Glover: I love that, and I think that’s very important for all my colleagues to listen. We need to have more relational relationships, not transactional relationships. The main thing that you can do in your practice to have that relational relationship is listening. Don’t always run your mouth, open up your ears, and you’ll be amazed by what you can get out of your patients.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
Dr. Darryl Glover: Something that you touched on prior to the podcast was that you were excited to be able to see yourself while you were selecting your eyewear. You saw folks with the same background and ethnicity which made you feel welcome. If you don’t mind, could you touch on that a little bit? One of our goals in optometry is to create more diversity. I think hearing it from a patient will really resonate with eye care professionals out there.
Lupe: Since I’ve been wearing glasses as a child, my parents were always with me, and they don’t speak much English. So having someone that could talk to me and my parents made it feel comfortable. I didn’t have to do very much work because we were all talking to each other … I love that they were able to ask me questions in Spanish where my parents heard what they were asking, but I was saying my answers, and they were like “oh but mija…” you know “you look you like this color don’t you?” or “don’t you prefer something smaller because your cheeks might bump into them” and um it was I think overall it’s just it’s like little moments like that that make it that much better.
Dr. Darryl Glover: That’s great information and advice! Everyone listening — make sure that you understand the importance of diversity and producing an inclusive environment for your patients, so that they can tell you everything that they need and they feel comfortable as well.
LIGHT SENSITIVITY & TRANSITIONSⓇ TESTING
Dr. Darryl Glover: I want to kind of switch gears here. Today, I want to shout out to TransitionsⓇ Optical for partnering with us on this podcast. I want to talk about your journey in light sensitivity and photophobia. [Let’s start] with the most recent eye exam because over the last year since your most recent eye exam, you have been able to elevate your lifestyle. You’ve been able to take it to the next level, and you’ve been able to find out some things that you didn’t even know about yourself. If you could touch on you know what that experience was like in the exam room and what that conversation looked like as you started that journey through light sensitivity.
Lupe: I think light sensitivity was something that I knew has always been there, but it wasn’t up until my high school years that my doctor realized it. He said I might want to consider doing transition lenses … and I’ve used them ever since. I’ve never stopped using transition lenses, I’ve been a hardcore user of TransitionsⓇ since high school, and now it’s been way more elevated in the sense that I am finding myself more as an individual. I know what I like and what I don’t like. I live in Chicago near the lake/ I have a dog. I work at an elementary school, so I do recess Duty so I’m outside, I’m inside I’m everywhere all at once and having lenses that that are polarized lenses that I could wear outside by the lake is amazing. I think this past year I’ve really come out of my shell in a way so it’s been beneficial.
Dr. Darryl Glover: Clearly, your doctor is fantastic, a great listener, and able to prescribe from the chair and find the right solutions. But what I love about TransitionsⓇ is that they have great resources for doctors and patients. One of the resources that they have is an online light sensitivity test … on Transitions.com they have a quiz, and it’s for patients to do prior to them walking into your office. This quiz is about two minutes, and it asks very key questions and it allows us to really see what things cause light sensitivity and what degree of light sensitivity a patient may have.
SEE THE QUIZ IN ACTION >>
We have to realize that not every patient understands that they’re light-sensitive. Sometimes we have to ask those additional questions, we have to probe, we have to do the digging, but it’s very important to make sure that your entire team is a part of that process, from the front desk to the technician to the doctor to online to using these resources that these excellent partners like Transitions Optical provides. These are things that patients are looking for, and this is what’s going to elevate your practice, so make sure you definitely leverage what’s at your fingertips.
WHERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TRANSITIONSⓇ
Learn more about Transitions:
Light Sensitive Patients – https://www.transitions.com/en-us/
Light Sensitivity Questionnaire – https://www.transitions.com/en-us/quiz/
Healthcare Professionals – https://trade.transitions.com/
