LATEST FAD -- TEENS SWAPPING CONTACT LENSES -- UNHEALTHY; OPTOMETRISTS SAY INFECTIONS OFTEN RESULT

Colored and patterned contact lenses have become popular with young people, and optometrists say it has led to some teen-agers swapping lenses like they might a blouse. But it is more like chewing someone else's gum and can lead to infection, a local optometrist says.

"It's a bad practice," said Dr. Thomas M. Gibbons, an optometrist with Regional Eyecare Center in Cape Girardeau and a trustee with the Missouri Optometric Association.

That association has issued a warning that contact-lens wearers can risk serious infection by wearing someone else's contacts.

Gibbons said he has seen at least a dozen teen-agers in the past year who have admitted to him that they have worn other people's contacts. "It's probably more common than we'd like to think," Gibbons said.

He said there is increasing popularity of colored contact lenses that will make eyes appear to be a different color and contact lenses with designs or pictures, such as eight balls or tiger stripes. Many times these are not prescription lenses, and they are often worn on social occasions.

"Sometimes a teen will have more than one pair of these lenses and will loan one to a friend for a night out," Gibbons said. "They'll try on someone else's lenses to see what they would look like with freaky eyes."

The danger is that bacteria forms naturally in and around the eye, he said. "Everyone's bacteria balance is different, and when you exchange lenses you exchange bacteria," Gibbons said. That can lead to eye infections, he said.

Colored and decorated lenses, with or without a prescribed power, should only be obtained from a doctor who knows the patient's history and should not be used by anyone else, said Dr. Michael R. Penney, president of the Missouri Optometric Association.

What's even worse, Penney said, is that some people are buying used lenses from friends or even strangers.

Several months ago used contact lenses were being sold through eBay, the online auction house, said Dr. Robert Koetting of St. Louis, a retired optometrist who does research and press releases for the Missouri Optometric Association.

Wesley Jessen, a company that makes unusual colored lenses, complained, and eBay adopted a policy that prohibits selling contacts through its auction, Koetting said.

"There's not only the danger of passing along an infection, there's also the matter of whether the lenses will fit properly," said Koetting, who explained that poorly fitted lenses can damage the eye.

"You should never buy a used lens on the Internet or anywhere else," Koetting said.