before you go by and wear colored contact lenses,
Halloween contacts or cosplay contacts, here are seven tips for colored contacts
to help you with safety comfort and where to buy them let's take a look.
eyes and shine my friends Dr Joseph Allen here from the Dr Eye Health show and I'm excited
today to talk about colored contact lenses and no these blue eyes are not colored contacts they
are all mine, I grew them myself! Now before you start wearing colored contacts there are
some things you need to know tip number one is to only wear them for a short amount of time or
for as long as what your doctor recommends for you for me personally if I'm wearing cosplay
or other sort of special effects Halloween contacts I only wear them for up to one to
two hours at a time at most just long enough to show up to a Halloween party or some other
special event so now why is this well unless you're wearing a cosmetic colored contact lens
like the Air Optics colors most contact lenses that are out there on the market are of a much
older technology from the 1960s and the older plastic that's used in a lot of these types of
contact lenses do not allow enough oxygen to pass through the plastic and get to your eye
the minimum industry standard for breathability of these lenses are a ranking of 24 DK over T
that's for oxygen transmissibility through the lens and these type of lenses are the
ranking of eight meaning a little bit of oxygen gets through but not enough and so the longer
you wear them the higher risk of damage to the eye so again please only wear them for a short
time otherwise you're at risk of the contact lenses causing edema or swelling of the cornea
the surface of your eye and that can lead to infection damage and other complications
there that's better tip number two is to keep a bottle of re-wetting drops handy again because of
the older technology do not expect these contact lenses to be super comfortable that has to do
with both the lens design and the quality of the plastic to improve your comfort consider having
a bottle of artificial tears that are approved for contact lenses such as the refresh relieva
for contacts for example if you do need some tips on how to get eye drops in I do have a guide for
that and I'll put that in the link up here as well as in the description below also and this is super
important at any time if your eyes become red irritated or painful take out your contact lenses
and if the eyes aren't feeling better give your doctor a call it's really just a good tip for
anybody who's wearing contact lenses tip number three is to always appropriately clean and store
your contact lenses unless you're using a single use contact lens like the dailies colored lenses
most contact lenses need to be appropriately cleaned and disinfected be sure to use an approved
multi-purpose disinfectant solution and never ever under any circumstance use regular water
or just any saline solution some of the absolute worst contact lens infections you can get come
from using water with the contact lenses if you are storing away your contact lenses for several
weeks to months be sure to read the back label of the disinfectant solution because it often
tells you how often that specific solution needs to be replaced in my experience most
of these multi-purpose solutions do have to be replaced every 30 days also keep in mind when
these contact lenses expire because depending on the brand it could be one day one month or even
one year which again has to do with how old the tech technology is also a pro tip is that when
you're cleaning the lenses make sure to rub the lenses a little bit with the solution because
that will help break up any sort of bacteria and other lipids that may be depositing onto
the surface of that lens tip number four is do not use dried out contact lenses or old contact
lenses old contact lenses that are dried up on the bottom of a case do not try to re-wet them
I have tried that myself it does not work if you try to use those lenses you're likely just going
to end up scratching and hurting your eye just another reminder to again take care of your eyes
and your lenses tip number five is to learn how to properly put in and take out your contact lenses
this is probably the number one hardest challenge about wearing any type of contact lens is again
just learning how to put them in take them out safely the best option is of course ask a local
clinic so that somebody can walk you through the proper steps in person most clinics only charge
a small fee on top of just like the fitting for contact lenses so I definitely think it's worth it
otherwise definitely feel free to check out some of the tutorials that we have here on this channel
both contact lenses for beginners of how to put them in take them out we also have videos on how
to take them out if they've kind of rolled behind the eyelid kind of getting to the back of your eye
sort of thing I even have a tutorial of how to put in these large sclera creepy looking one which is
no joke pretty tough but I'm getting pretty good at it tip number six is to buy your contacts from
a credible Source what I mean by that is that if you go online and you type in anything regarding
colored contact lenses Halloween lenses cosplay lenses anything like this chances are you're going
to see a plethora of websites that are selling colored contacts for a ridiculously cheap low
price and one major thing that I've noticed is a lot of these websites they don't validate your
prescription and for someone like me who lives and practices in the United States where color
contact lenses are classified as either a Class 2 or a class 3 medical device that means that for
any company to sell you contact lenses whether it's a local shop or an online store they need
to validate your prescription yes I know there are people out there right now or they can wait
what I can just go online and buy contact lenses from some other part of the world and don't need
a prescription that sounds awesome uh no think of it if these companies are not even following that
one basic rule to validate a prescription what other rules are they not following those laws
and regulations are in place to protect people and prevent them from getting scammed and hurt so
for this reason the number one best place to buy your colored contacts is of course through your
local eye care provider that way they are able to get the lenses directly from the distributor
they're able to validate you're getting the right prescription and making sure that the
lenses aren't expired or tampered with now if you do go and purchase colored lenses either online
or maybe through like a papa Halloween store and they don't validate your prescription the
big thing I just encourage you is to kind of buyer beware double check the expiration date make sure
it's still not expired and then make sure it's not damaged or been tampered with again just no matter
what for your eyes sake be safe about your lenses tip number seven is do not ever ever ever ever
your colored contacts the timing of this video there are no contact lenses on the market that
have been tested and approved for overnight or sleeping in contact lenses and the truth
is the risk of permanent vision loss corneal transplants and just the cost of having to
come in and see me or your local eye doctor because of a nasty infection multiple times
and the medications plus you know the pain and potentially lost work it's it is not
worth it okay now share this video with your friends because it may save their eyesight
otherwise thanks for watching keep an eye on it and we'll see you in the next one. peace!