Growing up I was not a big fan of Halloween, because we lived on a farm outside of town, trick or treating wasn’t nearly as much fun. In order to gather up all the Halloween goodies mom had to DRIVE us to the neighbors’ houses, this wasn’t as cool for a teenager as walking around with our friends.
Now that I have my own children and we live in a community with plenty of great neighbors I have found it very enjoyable to get them all dressed up and trick or treat our way through the neighborhood. I have also found that Halloween is a fun time in the eye care world.
Costume contact lenses are an exciting way to add the finishing touch to your frightful costume or, if your don’t want to wear a full costume, you can show your Halloween spirit by simply wearing costume contact lenses. Theatrical grade contact lenses can help you turn your eyes vampire red, werewolf yellow, or goblin green. You can show your loyalty to the Green Bay Packers or where a smiley face on your eye. As we all know Halloween can be fun, but it can also be scary. This is especially true in the realm of costume contact lenses when they are not fit and worn properly.
Although your contact lenses aren’t going to make a goblin jump out from behind the bushes they can cause vision threatening complications. It is important to remember that even though you may only be wearing these lenses for a day and they may not have any refractive correction they are still a medical device from which serious complications can arise if not worn properly. Sight threatening conditions such as corneal hypoxia, bacterial infections or corneal ulcers can occur when contact lenses are not fit properly. Unfortunately many of these complications occur even though the lens may be physically comfortable. In order to keep your eyes healthy please allow an eye care professional to evaluate your costume lenses on your eye so that you can have a fun and safe Halloween.