Contact Lenses in the News

This appeared on July 4, 2010, in the Virginia Pilot.

TEENS TURN BLIND EYE TO RISKS, GO GAGA FOR LENSES

  The New York Times

     Of all the strange outfits and accessories Lady Gaga wore in her “Bad Romance” video, who would have guessed that the look that would catch fire would be the huge anime-style eyes she   flashed in the bathtub?    Teenagers and young women nationwide have been copying them with special contact lenses imported from Asia.    Known as circle lenses, these are colored contacts – sometimes in shades such as violet and pink – that make the eyes appear larger because they cover not just the iris, as normal lenses do, but also part of the whites.    “I’ve noticed a lot of girls in my town have started to wear them a lot,” said Melody Vue, a 16-year-old in Morganton, N.C.,   who owns 22 pairs and wears them regularly.    These lenses might be just another beauty fad if not for the facts that they are contraband and that eye doctors express grave concern over them.    Yet the lenses are available online, typically for $20 to $30 a pair.    Dr. S. Barry Eiden, chairman of the contact lens and cornea section of the American Optometric Association, warned that ill-fitting contact lenses could deprive the eye of oxygen and cause serious vision problems.