PLANO TINTED CONTACT LENSES (DECORATIVE CONTACT LENSES)
What are plano contact lenses?
The term plano refers to a lens with no refractive power (i.e., ability to bend light rays). A plano contact lens has zero dioptric power (a diopter is measure of a lens’ ability to bend light, the larger this number, the more bending of the light rays) and thus does not correct for any refractive error such as myopia or hyperopia.
What are plano tinted contact lenses?
Often referred to as cosmetic contact lenses or decorative contact lenses, these are zero-power contact lenses that are tinted with a color placed onto the contact lens to enhance or change natural eye color. With the new technology available today, simple tinting is being replaced with spectacular effects, e.g., cat eyes, wild eyes, sports teams logos, etc. Wearers that utilize plano cosmetic lenses do so as a fashion statement rather than as a vision correction need, although cosmetic lenses are also available with corrective power.
Why are there concerns with cosmetic contact lenses?
Recently these contact lenses are being obtained without a prescription at boutiques, beach shops, tattoo parlors and other non-professional retailers, and as a result, they pose serious health risks. People, especially teenagers, are putting their precious vision at risk as the result of using nonprescription contact lenses without instructions for care (proper cleaning and disinfecting to minimize the possibility of eye infection) and without the supervision of an eye doctor. In fact, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to consumers against using these devices without a prescription or professional fitting.
FDA warning.
“Consumers should understand that decorative contact lenses, like contact lenses intended for correcting vision, present serious risks to eye health if they are distributed without a valid prescription and proper fitting by a qualified eye care professional,” said FDA Deputy Commissioner Lester M. Crawford, MD, in a FDA news release. “The FDA will aggressively use the full range of its statutory authorities to prevent the distribution of these potentially dangerous products directly to consumers,” he warned.
The FDA’s public health notice is at www.fda.gov/cdrh under “Safety Alerts.”
All contact lenses are medical devices.
Whether with corrective power or without corrective power, the US FDA has determined that all contact lenses are regulated medical devices available only by prescripton, and as such should be utilized under the supervision of an eye care professional.
The above information was produced for Contact Lens Docs.Com. Advisors were William H. Ehlers, MD, Srilata Naidu , MD and Thomas L. Steinemann, MD
Copyright 2006, Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists, Inc