CHARLOTTE, N.C.,None — Thank you for voting on wsoctv.com. Would You Risk Your Health For Cosmetic Enhanced Eyes? Would you risk your eyesight and wear cosmetic contact lenses to enhance your look? Yes, they are cool No, too dangerous I don't know
North Carolina's Board of Opticians plans to investigate stores in the Charlotte area where Channel 9's crews found cosmetic contact lenses being sold illegally.
Eyewitness News first reported on the dangers of those lenses seven years ago, and now they're wildly popular again.
For Felisa Ann Brown, it started with a trip to the flea market.
"I just asked for contacts, and they just sold them to me," Brown said.
She added: "I put them in to change the color of my eyes."
But she's hardly alone. The artificially colored, big-eyed looks of celebrities such as Lady Gaga have how-to videos springing up all over the Internet.
Doctors like Tracy MacIntyre Raykovicz said they're seeing more and more patients with serious eye problems.
WEB EXTRA: Optometrist Explains Dangers Of Cosmetic Lenses
"In one night, they can go from perfect vision to no vision," Raykovicz said. "That can be irreversible."
As a licensed optometrist in south Charlotte, Raykovicz is legally allowed to sell contact lenses, but they require a prescription because every eye has its own shape and curvature.
Contacts that don't fit properly could damage the cornea, causing infections, ulcers and even blindness.
Raykovicz said most of the patients she's seen with problems bought lenses from places that were not licensed to sell them.
"Beauty supply stores; I've heard gas stations, (and) I've heard vendors at the beach sell them," Raykovicz said.
So Eyewitness News decided to check around Charlotte.
At Desires Beauty Supply on Sugar Creek Road, a Channel 9 producer found a big display of lenses and an employee who gave bad information when asked if they needed to be fitted.
"No size, it's for all," the employee said.
The lenses Channel 9 bought did have an FDA logo on them, but Eyewitness News checked, and the Korean manufacturer is not registered with the FDA.
The same lenses were for sale at Galaxy Beauty Supply, and Channel 9's producer was told the same misleading information.
"They don't have to be fitted to the eye or anything like that? You just put them in?" the producer said.
"Yes," an employee replied.
Eyewitness News anchor Erica Bryant then went in with some questions. The employee put her on the phone with his manager, who had the employee show Channel 9 what appeared to be some type of insurance form from the salesman who sold them the contacts.
Employees said they thought that gave them the right to sell contact lenses, but they couldn't be more wrong.
"It's illegal to sell a contact lens without a prescription," Raykovicz said.
Brown is proof of why that's so important.
"Honestly, I really thought I was going blind," she said.
She developed a severe infection in her eyes after wearing the flea market lenses. Antibiotic drops cleared everything up, but for three days, she could barely see.
"If the doctor didn't prescribe them to you, I wouldn't even buy them," Brown said.
Channel 9 contacted the state Board of Opticians with the findings. The director said many of the store owners have no idea they're breaking the law. They buy the lenses from traveling salespeople who don't mention the dangers or the law requiring a prescription.
More Information: FDA: Contact Lens Risks
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