Contact Lenses in Canada : Buy Cheap, At Your Own Risk

Every time there is a product that people have to buy repeatedly, there will always be a lot of people looking for a cheaper source. The same holds true with contact lenses. Contact lenses, being medical devices that can cause damage to your body if not fitted and handled properly, are highly regulated and, therefore, relatively expensive. In recent years however, people have discovered a new, cheap source to meet their needs - contact lenses in Canada. However, if you buy your contacts from Canada to save money, just be sure you are aware that you buy at your own risk.

The marketing of contacts is very similar to the marketing of prescription drugs. Contact lenses are also highly regulated, which makes them somewhat expensive. After all, what is a contact lens? If you think about it, it's nothing more than a tiny, thin piece of plastic. The value of the lens comes from the fact that it is carefully engineered to correct vision, safely fit the eye, and to provide oxygen and fluid flow, while resisting bacteria and infection. The regulation necessary to assure that these factors are carefully monitored, adds greatly to the cost of obtaining contact lenses. It follows logically that if you can avoid the regulation, you can avoid the high cost.

Similarly, prescription drugs are highly regulated and, therefore, are relatively expensive. However, in recent years, many people have discovered that they can avoid their local regulations affecting the cost of prescription drugs by ordering their prescription drugs online from suppliers in Canada, thereby saving a lot of money. The problem is, the very regulations that people have sought to avoid in the name of saving money, are those regulations which were put into place originally to protect the consuming public in the areas of health and safety. Therefore, ordering prescription drugs from Canada may be a great idea for saving money, but the buyer must beware of the associated risk in side-stepping important regulations.

Contact lenses have seen a similar experience. Contact lenses in Canada can be significantly cheaper when imported to other countries because the buyer is avoiding the regulations in their own country, which can often be more stringent. Buyers often don't realize this, and can be lead to believe that they are receiving the same quality lenses that they would receive within their own country. However, purchasing contact lenses that are not subject to the usual regulations can be a risky proposition. This is similar to the situation with non-corrective contact lenses (such as special effects costume lenses, or colored lenses used just for the purpose of altering eye color). The regulatory bodies in many countries, like "Health Canada", do not consider a non-corrective lens a "medical device", and therefore don't require such lenses to meet the same standards as corrective lenses, such as the standards contained in the "Medical Devices Regulations" in Canada. Unfortunately, when regulations aren't in place, there will always be unscrupulous companies who will cut corners on safety in order to put a cheap lens on the market in hopes of making a fast buck. This can be a real threat to the health and safety of lens wearers who order non-corrective lenses, because it is no less important for a non-corrective lens to fit properly (thereby avoiding eye injury or infection), than with a corrective lens. This is just an example of how the absence of regulations can add a great deal of risk to the purchase of contact lenses.

In light of this, you may want to think twice before you order contact lenses in Canada just to take advantage of a cheap price on contacts that just seems to be too good to be true. This is not to say that contacts in Canada are all bad. Just make sure you check out the company you are ordering from, with the same care you would use in checking out any other supplier of your medical needs. With a little care, you can still get a good deal from a cheap source for contacts; and you'll have the peace of mind of knowing that you've made sure your concerns for your eye health and safety have been met as well.