Halloween Hazards: Think Twice Before Transforming Your Eyes
Halloween is a fun holiday, but playing dress up can be serious business. Consumers spend hours making sure costumes are accessorized just right; however, transforming your eyes by changing their color or appearance with non-corrective, decorative contact lenses to look like a cat, werewolf or vampire can be a dangerous choice. The American Optometric Association (AOA) and the New Jersey society of Optometric Physicians (NJSOP) are warning consumers about the risks of wearing decorative contact lenses sold illegally, without a prescription from an eye doctor.
According to the AOA’s 2012 American Eye-Q® consumer survey, 18 percent of Americans wear these non-corrective, decorative, or colored contact lenses. Of those, 28 percent report illegally purchasing the lenses without a prescription and from a source other than an eye doctor, a great concern to doctors of optometry.
There is no such thing as a ‘one size fits all — A proper medical eye and vision examination ensures that the individual is a viable candidate for contact lens wear, that the lenses are properly fitted and that the patient is able to safely care for their lenses.
Since 2005, federal law requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate decorative lenses as medical devices, similar to prescription contact lenses. However, decorative lenses continue to be illegally marketed and distributed directly to consumers through a variety of sources, including flea markets, the Internet, beauty salons and convenience stores. Consumers also report purchasing them at retail outlets, where they are sold as fashion accessories.
Decorative contact lenses carry the same risks as corrective contact lenses. Because of this, it’s important for consumers to obtain a prescription and familiarize themselves with the information available from an eye doctor to reduce the risk of infection.
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Decorative Contact Lenses
Decorative (also known as cosmetic or novelty) cosmetic lenses are often sold illegally via the internet and on the boardwalk. Despite the Federal law in place to regulate this practice and the New Jersey Contact Lens Dispenser Act, the illegal sale of contact lenses has continued with impunity and has resulted in numerous documented cases of harm done to consumers.
The New Jersey Society of Optometric Physicians (NJSOP) and the Division of Consumer Affairs have met regarding this issue and taken steps to crack down on these offenders.
From the Division of Consumer Affairs:
“On August 12, 2011, at the Seaside Boardwalk, investigators seized a total of 1,535 novelty contact lenses, with a total estimated value of $38,000. Because decorative contact lenses have been associated with eye injury and infection, state and federal law prohibit their sale without a prescription from an eye doctor.”
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By Katie Van Hise
The most frequently watched video on the NJSOP YouTube page http://www.youtube.com/user/NJSOP is an interview that Dr. Kimberly Friedman did on Fox 29 a few years back about kids and contact lenses. The video, titled Kids & Contacts: How Young is Too Young?, has yielded over 66,000 views and almost 200 viewer comments.
As Dr. Friedman points out in the interview, there is no “right” age for kids to get contacts. Often, it depends on the maturity of the child and their ability to handle the responsibility that comes with having contact lenses.
Dr. Michael Tortorici, who was interviewed for a New Jersey Family Magazine article on the same subject, agrees.
“Technically, a child of any age can be fit with contact lenses,” says Dr. Tortorici. “Parents should consider their child’s maturity level and their child’s individual needs when deciding whether or not contact lenses may be right for them.”
According to Dr. Friedman, children who play sports are more likely to need or want contacts at a younger age.
“Very often children don’t want to wear their dress glasses or sports goggles,” says Dr. Friedman, “so the contact lenses allow them to have the safety of not having dress glasses on along with better peripheral vision for sports.”
As far as fitting children for contacts, lenses are designed to fit each individual no matter what age, so fitting a child should be no more difficult than fitting an adult.
Several safety tips for parents of contact lens wearers to keep in mind include:
- Never let your child sleep in lenses.
- Make sure your child follows the guidelines of your eye-care professional.
- Visit your optometric physician if your child exhibits any unusal signs of discomfort, redness, itchiness, etc.
Want more information on contact lenses for kids? Check out this article from New Jersey Family Magazine which uses survey data collected by the American Optometric Association to detail what optometric physicians think about the subject: http://www.njfamily.com/NJ-Family/October-2012/Kids-and-Contact-Lenses/
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