I saw an advert yesterday for (non-prescription) contact lenses which were printed in such a way as to make the wearer’s eye look like that of a cat, or an alien and other geometric patterns etc.
Any dopers out there have these?
Do they affect your vision at all when you wear them?
Do they actually look as good as the adverts?
With the ‘slit pupil’ types, is it hard to get them properly aligned?
A friend of mine has the cat eyes and she loves them. she says they do not impair her vision at all, and that lining them up is as easy as putting regular contacts in. Look at some of the other ones on that page, pretty coo.
ahem…sorry mangetout…I meant COOL
I knew somebody who had yellow cat-eye contacts. They were REALLY cool – he wore them to classes once on Halloween. He said they were more uncomfortable than regular contacts, but not too bad. They really did look neat. He didn’t mention any problems with getting them aligned.
I don’t think they make neato prescription ones, though, and if I’m going to wear contacts they are going to do more for me than just look good.
//\etalHead (I know. I’m not doing that correctly.) has them, but I don’t know if he still checks in to SD.
There are growing concerns about the safety of these lenses. If you’re interested in getting them it may be worth a trip to the optometrist.
There are growing concerns about the safety of these lenses. If you’re interested in getting them it may be worth a trip to the optometrist.
A few years ago the British sprinter, Linford Christie, started wearing contacts with his sponsors logo - Puma - on them.
The cosmetic contact lenses are available in a limited range of prescriptions.
There is a study being done on the number of infections caused by improper use and storage of cosmetic lenses, whether in prescription powers or plano.
Plano, by the way, is the optician’s geek-speak for zero-power lenses. The Semi-Insignifigant Other and I had our own optical store for a while (boom goes the economy, boom goes our store), and I worked with him at the place he had worked before…so, although I have never WORN them (contacts are of the Devil, and putting pieces of plastic in your eyes just means that you are OBVIOUSLY a demon, and consort with the Devil on a regular basis, thankyou VERYverymuch…actually, I can’t stand to have anything touch my eyes, which is tough, since I have glaucoma)anyway, I have never worn them, but they do not impede vision when properly aligned, and BARELY impede it if out of alignment, IF they are either the US made ones or custom made in the US ones. (Custom cosmetic contacts run from $500 to $7,000 PER LENS, so unless you’re wealthy, don’t ask.)
Your basic, mass market contact that looks like a whited out eyeball or has an eightball or the cateyes or whatever does not impede sight, and if there is a small ‘blank’ area, the brain fills it in.
Anything more than a -6.00, though, and you’re SOL. And us farsighted folk are as well. (They may have changed the parameters in the past few years, but not by much.)
They leave a ‘hole’ for the iris in the lenscolor. They’re STILL a medical device, and are still, by federal law, a prescription item.
And having seen the problems caused by people wearing the non-approved contacts from Mexico and Brazil, I would caution buyers to look for a brand name and buy from a doctor or ABO certified optician, NOT a flea market or beauty supply. Permanent blue blotches on the cornea are hard to live with.