The Eye Care & Surgery Center
advises patients to use caution this Halloween in choosing decorative eye colorchanging contact lenses as part of their costume selections. Turning your eye color from blue to some far out appearance or ghoulish look by
using over-the-counter, decorative contact lenses can be a good source of
Halloween fun, BUT it can also lead to serious vision-threatening problems. The Food
and Drug Administration, regulates all contact lenses as medical devices that
require a prescription and proper fitting by an eye care professional. Thus, even someone with perfect vision would still
require an eye exam and a prescription in order to wear any kind of contacts,
including cosmetic lenses.
Risk & Danger of Non PrescriptionCosmetic Contact Lenses
Some
websites advertise no prescription decorative contacts as if they were fashion
accessories or toys with fanciful, playful packaging in order to attract teens
and young adults, especially girls. The problem is not that people use
decorative, noncorrective contacts, but that they buy the devices without a
prescription through unlicensed vendors on the Internet or at flea markets and
specialty shops. The purchasers and users of these over-the-counter contact
lenses faces a huge risk including scratched corneas or corneal abrasion, “pink
eye” conjunctivitis, infection such as corneal keratitis and corneal ulcer-the
latter exposing the wearer to blinding consequences.
The
safe and effective use of contact lenses-whether decorative or not-requires
proper fitting and education about their care to prevent the potential for
serious eye problems from becoming a
reality. If you or a friend would like to learn more about contact lenses of
any type including decorative non prescription contacts please The Eye Care & Surgery
Center at 908-789-8999, visit The
Eye Care & Surgery Center
or facebook.com/eyecareandsurgerycenter to schedule an appointment.
With
locations at 592 Springfield Avenue, Westfield, New Jersey 07090, 10 Mountain
Boulevard, Warren, New Jersey 07059 and 517 Route One South, Suite 1100,
Iselin, New Jersey 08830, The Eye Care & Surgery
Center is a leading NJ eye care practice conveniently located for patients from
throughout central and northern New Jersey.
