Contact Lenses

Call her super-talented or super-insane, there's no denying that Lady Gaga has a magnetic effect on young girls, inspiring thousands of young fans to don blond wigs, sheer lace leggings, yellow caution tape and even sunglasses made out of cigarettes. But, the latest Gaga trend — circle lenses, has got not only fashion critics worried, but eye doctors as well. Circle lenses were available before the Gaga explosion, and in fact their popularity originated in Japan, Singapore and South Korea where many young women wear them to accentuate their eyes to resemble Japanese anime characters.

We rarely stop to think about it, but reading is an amazing accomplishment. It turns markings on a page or a screen into coherent thoughts. It's a complicated process: The eyes see a procession of letters, and the brain turns them into words. The reading process is challenging for people with dyslexia. The disorder isn't well understood, but there seems to be a communication breakdown between the eyes and the brain. Some people with dyslexia have trouble associating letters with sounds and words.

Allergan Inc. said Monday that it has voluntarily recalled about 400,000 bottles of contact lens solution it expected to sell worldwide. The Irvine maker and marketer of therapeutic products said it will take a $4-million pretax charge in its first quarter because of the recall. Jeff D'Eliscu, a company spokesman, said the charge will reduce the company's first-quarter earnings to 34 cents a share, off four cents a share from analysts' consensus projections.

Aaron Miles found himself backed into a corner last off-season. The teams interested in him -- and there were only three -- were offering him minor league contracts. At 33, he was in danger of becoming a major league washout. It prompted him to do something he had long considered, but feared: undergo laser eye surgery. Miles credits the operation for his resurgence. The same player who hit .185 in 2009 is batting .311 for the Dodgers. And he already has appeared in 80 games, something he didn't do in either of the previous two seasons.

U.S. health officials warned Americans not to wear colored contact lenses being sold simply for decoration and without a prescription or a professional fitting, saying the lenses present serious risks of permanent eye injury. The Food and Drug Administration said noncorrective, decorative contact lenses are being sold directly to consumers at flea markets, convenience stores and beach shops, adding that marketing may increase around Halloween.

PPG Industries said its Chemicals Group will form a joint venture with a French firm to manufacture and market special contact lenses, forming a new company that will be headquartered in St. Petersburg, Fla. PPG and Essilor International of France have reached an agreement in principle to make ophthalmic-quality lenses for consumer eye wear. PPG would hold 51% of the new company, officials said. The deal is subject to approval by boards of directors of both companies.

The American Optometric Assn. recently issued an alert to its members after getting reports that some junior and senior high school students, mostly in the Midwest, are tinting their contact lenses with food coloring. The practice, which produces bright colors not generally available for contact lenses, can be dangerous and should be discouraged, association officials warn.

Federal health officials are warning people not to use decorative contact lenses as part of Halloween costumes. Decorative lenses sold without a prescription are illegal and can cause serious eye injury and even blindness, the Food and Drug Administration said, citing injury reports it has received. The lenses, which come in various colors and designs, have been widely sold without prescription, the agency said.

Emory University researchers have fitted monkeys with contact lenses in a study that they hope will yield new ways to treat babies born with cataracts and other vision disabilities. The study at Atlanta's Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center involves a pediatric ophthalmologist, a primate behavioral psychologist, neuroscientists and several dozen monkeys.

Disposable contact lenses are causing thousands of serious eye infections each year despite manufacturers' claims that they are safer than reusable lenses, researchers said Monday. Overnight use of contact lenses has been known to be associated with an increased risk of infections, the worst of which can lead to blindness.

Will the future bring us the teleportation devices of "Star Trek" or the sinister machines of "The Matrix"? Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku of the City College of New York says that many of the things that were once the domain of science fiction — cars that navigate rush-hour traffic on their own, wallpaper that can switch colors when you remodel, an elevator that takes you into outer space — are already here, or well on their way. His book "Physics...

Jay Gibbons was beginning to wonder whether his eyes would ever allow him to play in the major leagues again. "It definitely crept through my mind more than once that this was not going to get better," Gibbons said Tuesday after being reinstated with the Dodgers. He replaced Marcus Thames , who was put on the 15-day disabled list because of a right quadriceps strain. Starting in spring training, Gibbons struggled to find the correct contact lenses, especially in his right eye, leaving him unable to handle big league pitching and to break camp with the Dodgers.

Reporting from Surprise, Ariz. Jay Gibbons is struggling to keep his eyes on the prize. A leading contender for at least a part-time role as the Dodgers' left fielder, Gibbons is leaving spring training for two days because of ill-fitting contact lenses. The lens for his left eye is "not fitting great right now and every once in a while it pops out at inconvenient times, like maybe [while] hitting," Gibbons said Monday, adding that he planned to see an eye doctor in San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday.

An experimental synthetic cornea implanted in 10 patients may be a potential alternative to cadaver corneas for curing vision loss due to corneal inflammation and scarring, researchers said Wednesday. Eye surgeons currently use primarily cadaver corneas for transplants, but that requires the use of anti-rejection drugs and presents a risk of infection. Plastic corneas can also be used, but they present other problems and are generally tried only when tissue transplants have failed.

Call her super-talented or super-insane, there's no denying that Lady Gaga has a magnetic effect on young girls, inspiring thousands of young fans to don blond wigs, sheer lace leggings, yellow caution tape and even sunglasses made out of cigarettes. But, the latest Gaga trend — circle lenses, has got not only fashion critics worried, but eye doctors as well. Circle lenses were available before the Gaga explosion, and in fact their popularity originated in Japan, Singapore and South Korea where many young women wear them to accentuate their eyes to resemble Japanese anime characters.

Being a chameleon comes easily to third-generation Hollywood scion Danny Huston — son of director John, grandson of actor Walter and half brother of actress Anjelica. The nimble actor recently played Jack Kevorkian's flamboyant lawyer, Geoffrey Feiger, in the HBO film "You Don't Know Jack," starring Al Pacino. And he's on the big screen as King Richard I in the action adventure " Robin Hood" with Russell Crowe. How long did it take you to become Richard the Lionheart in "Robin Hood."

The Food and Drug Administration recommended Wednesday that consumers who use extended-wear contact lenses or disposable lenses keep them in their eyes no longer than seven days at a time, warning that the currently approved wearing time of 30 days poses "too high" a risk of developing corneal lesions that can lead to blindness. The federal agency urged all manufacturers of extended-wear lenses--which are worn by an estimated 5 million Americans--to voluntarily relabel their products to reflect the recommendation.

A New Jersey Superior Court judge Thursday approved Johnson & Johnson's $860-million settlement of lawsuits accusing the drug maker of misleading consumers into prematurely throwing away disposable 1-Day Acuvue contact lenses. Judge John Fratto found that the settlement is a "fair and reasonable" resolution of lawsuits by consumers, who said they were deceived into thinking they could use the lenses only a single time.

Johnson & Johnson reported a 1.1% increase in third-quarter profit as intensifying generic competition hurt sales of its blockbuster prescription drugs. In addition, the global recession slowed growth for medical devices, the only J&J segment that didn't decline. The New Brunswick, N.J., maker of Band-Aids, biotech drugs and Acuvue contact lenses said it earned $3.35 billion, or $1.20 a share. In last year's third quarter, it had net income of $3.31 billion, or $1.17 a share. Revenue fell 5.3% to $15.08 billion.

If the eyes are the windows into the soul, then Kevin Carter has the power to draw the blinds. As a special effects contact lens painter, he can create everything from cataract-ridden eyes to the supernatural peepers of the living dead. Raised in Medford, Ore., and Sonoma, Calif., Carter got hooked on horror films early on. "I loved the 'Friday the 13th' movies and Freddy Krueger in 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and stuff like that," he recalls.