Face Paint Preferable to Masks for Eye Health During Halloween: Craig See, MD

Craig See, MD, a cornea specialist for the Cole Eye Institute at Cleveland Clinic, discussed alternatives to masks during Halloween as a means of better protecting eyes when dressing up for the season. Face paint, he said, offers more flexibility with less chance of injury.

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity; captions are auto-generated.

Transcript

Are masks for costumes a problem for eye health? Are there any to avoid?

I think that any mask, it goes right around your face, and it usually gets up pretty close to your eyes, so I think it's about how it's fitting on there. A mask that's too loose and moving around, or that's too tight and is pressing against the eye could potentially damage it. That's not a real common injury that we see, but you know that's something that could definitely happen, if the mask is moving around, that could cause a problem. And another thing that we haven't talked about yet is a lot of masks, when you wear them, you might not have very good peripheral vision, and so you might be more likely, if you're walking around in the dark, to trip or fall or especially for kids, they may be more likely to walk out into the street if they can't see that a car is coming from the side. For masks, you just have to be careful with that. In my experience, kids don't usually want to wear their masks very long anyways. I think that for a lot of kids costumes, face paint may be a better, safer choice for them, and it may be one that they keep on for longer than their mask anyway.

What should parents, children, and eye doctors do to protect eyes during the Halloween season?

I think the main thing that we see problems with are the cosmetic contact lenses, so I'd be very cautious with the cosmetic contact lenses. Beyond that, it's some of the same stuff that causes injuries year-round. It's not like it's only Halloween that kids are swinging around magic wands or swords or anything like that, so just be mindful of injuries from that. And then in terms of the masks, a lot of it is sort of common sense. And masks vs face paint is something you should think about. A lot of times face paint might be a better option. If you have face paint on, you can still talk normally, you could still have a drink or eat something, and not have to take the mask off. I guess I'm in camp face paint over camp mask for most things.