Precautions To Take Before Jazzing Up Your Eyes With Cosmetic Contact Lenses

Author: Arthur Truax

Precautions to take before jazzing up your eyes with cosmetic contact lenses

Colored or specially designed contact lenses have a variety of cosmetic uses. If you're looking for a somewhat atypical method of altering your appearance for a short time, these lenses might be just what you need.

That said, you'll want to remember to be just as careful while using them as you would with any other kind of contact lenses. After all, you're placing them on the surface of your eyeball - an extremely sensitive part of the body. They need to always be clean and intact, with no tears or scratches.

Contacts that aren't properly fitted for your eye, or are improperly maintained (sleeping with contacts in is one of the biggest examples of this) can cause serious eye problems. These include conjunctivitis or "pinkeye," corneal damage including sores and ulcers and, in severe cases, blindness.

Furthermore, you need to have a prescription from a licensed optical health professional, just as you would with regular contacts. If you come upon a company that is selling colored or cosmetic contact lenses without asking customers to provide evidence of a doctor's prescription, know that they are doing so illegally, and be sure to keep your distance.

It's not as if it is difficult to obtain a copy of your optical prescription for glasses or contacts - your optometrist or ophthalmologist is required to give it to you after any eye exam, even if you don't specifically ask for it.

Once you have the prescription, you can send it to any contact lens vendor, including those selling cosmetic and colored lenses, by mail, fax or possibly as a scanned and uploaded document. After that, all you have to do is choose whatever designs suit your needs.

Have you ever thought about using colored contacts? 

In Brief

  • Colored or specially designed contact lenses have a variety of cosmetic uses.
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