Buyer Beware
Sorting help from hype in any media--the World Wide Web, television, or print--can pose a problem. So remember: If a claim sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Here are some recent examples of potential problems:
- Special effects contacts promoted on the Web with names like "Vampire" and "Reptilian" may sound fun to try, but they could be risky, says FDA's James Saviola, O.D. "We currently have no information that shows pigments in these lenses are safe in the eye." While FDA hasn't been strict about similar lenses used on a very limited basis by entertainers, Internet advertising takes them beyond isolated theatrical usage.
- Buying mail-order contacts with no prescription calls for caution, says Saviola. "If your current lens has a 14-millimeter (mm) diameter and 8.7 base curve, and the mail-order company switches to another brand lens with a 14.0-mm diameter and 8.8 curve, it seems like it's about the same size and shape and should fit well. Maybe it will. But the new brand is a different material. It may leave your eyes uncomfortable."
- A misleading print ad for Acuvue contacts was corrected last year after an FDA warning. The ad showed a man and woman half indoors and half outdoors on a sunny beach--no protective eyewear. "Open your eyes to the UV around you," it stated. "And you'll be glad Acuvue contact lenses are introducing UV protection." Writing to Vistakon Inc., of Johnson & Johnson Vision Products Inc., FDA warned: "The combination of this picture and the accompanying language implies that wearing the Acuvue UV-absorbing lens outside offers as much protection as one would naturally have indoors." Warnings in tiny print that the lenses were not substitutes for UV-absorbing eyewear did not "counteract the overall message" that the lenses provided full UV protection, the agency wrote. The company also corrected a similar TV ad.
- Misleading pricing a few years earlier prompted consumer lawsuits against Bausch & Lomb for selling the same lens under three different names, at three different prices.
- Charges of false claims were settled by the Federal Trade Commission last November against J. Mason Hurt, O.D., of Bartlett, Tenn. Hurt had touted his Precise Corneal Molding orthokeratology treatment as a permanent cure for defective vision. A consent agreement prohibits Hurt from making further false claims and requires reliable scientific evidence for future claims.
--D.F.
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