Teens in Bakersfield are catching onto a fad that could hurt their vision or even blind them. It's a contact lense craze popularized by a Lady Gaga music video, but the lenses are not sold in the U.S.
She's known for her crazy fads and fashions, but this one could actually be dangerous.
"It puts you at risk for infection. Infections can cause redness, irritation, and temporary to permanent vision loss," said Dr. Daniel Chang, an opthamologist.
In her Bad Romance video, Lady Gaga is shown with digitally enhanced, doll like eyes. And it's a look that can be copied with contact lenses.
There's even an online tutorial on YouTube on how to use the lenses, called cirlce lenses. The colored part of the contact covers part of the whites of the eye.
They aren't sold or regulated in the United States. But that doesn't mean they aren't easy to come by. You can buy them online from other countries, mostly Asia.
"The contact lense is not a natural part of our body." Chang said. "They need to be very carefully made, maintained and also fitted properly to the eye to have a good long time use. If you just put anything in your eye, it's just like putting dirt in your eye."
Any contact lense that isn't fitted properly or isn't the correct prescription could damage your eye.
So while Lady Gaga singes about being caught in a "Bad Romance," teens and others could ene up caught in a bad and dangerous trend if they aren't careful.
It used to be that only contact lenses that altered your vision needed to come with a prescription and be regulated. But a few years ago when colored lenses became popular, there was a rash of infections and the FDA began regulating those, too.
