If you live in the United States or Great Britain, you will need a doctor’s prescription even to buy non-prescription contact lenses. All contact lenses have been categorized as medical devices and require you to have a doctor’s prescription before you buy them. This is true even if you have perfect 20/20 vision and only wish to purchase non-prescription or plano, which means “no power” contact lenses for cosmetic or theatrical reasons.
It wasn’t that long ago when designer, or novelty, contact lenses could be purchased for fun at the corner gas station or convenience market. The Food and Drug Administration had labeled contact lenses as medical equipment that needed a doctor’s prescription, but they had left out non-prescription contact lenses. They categorized those in with other cosmetics and regulated them as they do makeup and skin creams. In 2003 the FDA began to take notice of the increasing number of complaints of eye infections and, in some cases, severe complications requiring corneal transplants due to these non-prescription contact lenses. People were not sufficiently educated in the proper care of contact lenses and were wearing lenses that had not been properly disinfected or were sharing contact lenses with other people.
This led to the United States declaring that all contact lenses would require a prescription. Many countries followed suit and introduced legislation to ban the selling of novelty, non-prescription contact lenses without verifying that the person purchasing them had a doctor’s prescription.
So, if you plan on winning that costume contest this Halloween and a pair of cat-eye contact lenses is exactly what you need to pull it off, you had better make an appointment at the optometrist’s office first. Even on-line sites that are based in other countries that may not have the same regulations will require the name and phone or fax number of your doctor’s office in order to verify your prescription before they will send your non-prescription contact lenses to you.
Because of the real risk to the health of your eyes, it is in your best interest that non-prescription contact lenses are becoming a thing of the past. Once you have a prescription from your doctor, it is good for at least one year, sometimes more. And seeing the doctor will give you the opportunity to learn about the proper way to clean your contact lenses and also a chance to practice putting lenses in and taking them out. With proper care, they will last a long time and so will your eyes’ health.