Non Prescription Colored Contacts

With the advent of colored contacts being available to the general public and their ever-growing popularity, many people are asking if it’s possible to purchase them without a prescription. If your only goal is to change the color of your eyes and not correct a vision problem, can you buy non prescription colored contacts? The answer to this question is yes and no.

Yes, it is possible to purchase non prescription colored contacts, and no, it is not a good idea. For one thing, it is illegal for any company in the United States to sell contact lenses without a prescription; even if they are just for cosmetic reasons. The law was put into place to protect consumers from serious eye injury due to poorly-fitting or substandard contact lenses.
 
Everyone’s eyes are unique, and this includes not only color, but size and shape of the eyeballs. For this reason, contact lenses that fit perfectly on one person’s eyes will not fit on another person’s eyes. Though it may be possible to get away with wearing any non prescription colored contact lenses for a day or two without consequence, the risks of injury or infection are extremely high. When it comes to our eyes, there’s simply no reason to take the chance.

Why, then, do we see so many advertisements, mostly online, for non prescription colored contacts? There are two main reasons for seeing these advertisements. The first reason is that the contact lens retailer is selling the lenses legally, and their advertisement for “non prescription” simply means that you don’t need to have a vision correction prescription. This can get tricky. They advertise that they sell non prescription colored lenses to get your attention, but when it comes down to purchasing the lenses, you find that you actually do need to put in your doctor’s name and phone number.
 
The other reason that you’ll see advertisements for non prescription colored contacts is that the company that is advertising is located in a country other than the United States. Though it’s still illegal for other countries to sell colored contact lenses to anyone in the U.S. without a prescription, it’s difficult to enforce these laws when it comes to them. These overseas online companies can come and go quickly, and keeping up with them is almost impossible.

The bottom line is that you never want to purchase non prescription colored contacts, even if you live in a country where it’s legal to do so. Your eyes are too important and too fragile to take any risks with them. If you want colored contact lenses but don’t need any vision correction, an optometrist examination to get a prescription is a fairly simple procedure. They simply need to measure your eyes so that they can determine the size and shape of contact lenses that you need. Each eye will be measured individually, since there can be subtle difference between the two. Your prescription should be good for a year or two, but of course you want to consult with the eye doctor if you have any trouble with the colored contact lenses that you purchase.