Be Spooky But Care About Your Eye Health | Are Colored Contact Lenses for Halloween Costumes Safe?

• Colored Contact Lenses. Are contact lenses that change your eyes color. They are most popular during Halloween for costumes because they change your eye color, pupil shape, and give cartoon or film character effects to your eyes.
• Colored Contact Lenses are not FDA-approved. Never buy colored contact lenses from a business that doesn't ask for a prescription. In the United States it is illegal to sell any contact lenses without a prescription. Most of the lenses sold online, in beauty shops, and pop-up Halloween stores are sold illegally and are not FDA-approved.
• Risks of colored contact lenses on eye health. Non-prescription costume contacts can cut, scratch and infect your eye if they don't fit exactly right. Mis-sized lenses can cause corneal abrasions, corneal ulcers and potentially blinding painful bacterial infections like keratitis. Treating these injuries can require eye surgery, like a corneal transplant. And treatment doesn’t always work. People have been blinded by costume contact lenses.
• All contact lenses require an eye exam and proper fitting by an eye doctor.  An eye exam will properly measure your eyes provide you with a prescription and inform you if contact lens are the right option for you. As well as instruct you about contact lens cleaning, disinfecting, and directions on wearing lenses.