Non-prescription contacts are causing serious trouble for this unfortunate teenage girl
In a previous post I blogged about contact lenses causing a significant number of ER visits for kids. And while statistics are helpful, sometimes stories about individuals can be more compelling.
Here’s a story about Erica Barnes, a 14 year old from Queens, New York. She bought colored contacts without a prescription, training, or evaluation by an eye doctor. After falling asleep in the lenses she developed a severe eye infection that hospitalized her for two weeks. She now faces the sad choice of either losing vision in the infected eye or going through with a corneal transplant.
The video below makes some significant points. First, she did not seek an eye doctor to obtain her lenses. Had she done this, she would have received a proper exam, evaluation, and training. Second, she developed the infection one day after inserting the lens. It does not take long for serious eye infections to begin and do severe damage. Third, she was told to rinse her contact lenses in tap water, which is very dangerous. Some “vendors” offering non-prescription contacts neither know nor care about proper, healthy contact lens wear.
The video also acknowledges the growing popularity of colored contact lenses due to high profile celebrities using them in videos and on stage. However, these celebrities are not risking their fame, careers, and vision by using store-bought or non-prescription contact lenses. Rest assured: the stars are receiving proper contact lenses and care from their eye doctors.
Selling any contact lenses without a doctor’s prescription is illegal. This includes “plain” colored lenses without power or magnification. It is illegal because contact lenses are medical devices regulated by the FDA, and wearing illegal contact lenses can be very unhealthy and harmful to the eyes. If you want contact lenses, either with power to correct your vision or with color (or both), be sure to seek out a qualified eye doctor to help you. It is simply not worth risking a lifetime of visual problems.
Please watch the video below to see more of Erica’s story:
