If you open your door to a trick-or-treater this Halloween, don’t be shocked if the eyes that meet yours don’t look human.
Specialty contact lenses have joined temporary hair dye and washable tattoos as an exotic addition to kids’ Halloween costumes. And they’re available in an assortment of unsettling colors and patterns.
Wesley Jessen Corp., a contact lens manufacturer, produces a line of costume lenses called WildEyes with nine different designs. The selection includes Cat Eyes (black oval slits with a yellow background), Hypnotica (black background with thin white lines spiraling toward the pupil) and Alien (green background with black triangles on either side of the pupil and black squiggly lines radiating from the center).
The lenses can be worn by anyone, whether they need a vision correction or not. In fact, about half of all Wesley Jessen novelty lenses are sold for non-prescription lenses.
That’s what has eye doctors particularly concerned. “Kids who have never worn contact lenses before just don’t have the knowledge about lens care or the understanding of what problems they may encounter and so they’re at greater risk,” says Glen Steele, professor and chief of pediatrics and vision therapy at Southern College of Optometry in Memphis.
Lens swapping is also a common and dangerous practice among novelty contact wearers. All contact lenses, however, must be prescribed and exactly fitted by a professional. Swapping means a child is wearing lenses that don’t fit correctly and that may be carrying germs, which can cause eye infections ranging from pink eye to sight-threatening corneal ulceration.
Although the lenses are clear in the center, where the pupil is, and colored on the periphery, Steele also has some reservations about peripheral vision. “I don’t like the novelty lenses, and I don’t like the more traditional lenses that change your eye color because they somewhat reduce awareness of the periphery, particularly at night,” says Steele. “I’ve spent my whole career promoting awareness of the periphery, and I just don’t like the concept.”
At $99 a pair, not including eye care services, the lenses are an expensive addition to a Halloween costume. They last for about a year.
