Costume Contact Lenses are All Trick and No Treat

October 14, 2024

Halloween is on Tuesday, and our experts warn that wearing non-prescription colored contacts isn't worth the risk.

Although many people want to enhance their costumes with creative contacts, there's a reason that the FDA makes selling contacts without a prescription illegal. Costume contact lenses can quickly turn into a Halloween nightmare by causing painful eye infections (conjunctivitis), scratches (corneal abrasions), allergic reactions, deep eye injuries, and even blindness.

Spokane Eye Clinic's Dr. Matthew Weed notes, “Contact lenses that are sold without prescriptions haven’t been fit to the surface of patients’ eye, and because of that, they can cause painful eye injuries and sometimes like simple like scratches, other times it can be deeper and penetrating. I personally have seen patients go blind, and they have to have an eye surgically removed from their socket.”