You can take simple steps to prevent a lifetime of visual disability and blindness for your family by a visit to the eye doctor. Eye wear for sports is an important decision for preventative eye care. If you or your children are regularly involved in sports, choosing sports eye wear is essential. A good idea is special pair of eye glasses that look good but offer excellent eye protection from fast moving balls, flying dirt particles, and injuries from fingers and elbow blows to the eye. There are different choices that work better for different sports. The main goal is eye protection and prevention of eye damage. Even in little league baseball pitches may reach speeds exceeding seventy miles per hour. Basketball is very dangerous from eye injuries due to fingers abrading the cornea, the clear tissue covering the front of the eye. A hockey game in Fort Collins recently resulted in a blinding eye injury to a spectator. This was not an isolated event. If spectators can lose sight, think of the risk to the players. Fortunately, face shield are becoming standard in major league hockey. Unfortunately, that is not always true for children and recreational players.
Cataracts Can Result From Eye Sports Injuries-NEI Picture
Vision and eye nutrition is very important. You only have one set of eyes, it is important to protect them and have proper vision care. With sports, the eyes need to be protected while wearing glasses. The last thing you want is for the glasses to break and cause eye damage. Sturdy frames and special lenses are two aspects of sports eye glasses. In most cases they should be certified as meeting American National Standards Institute qualifications for safety frames and lenses. These frames have special grooves to help keep the lenses from dislodging under impact. The standards also call for higher impact resistance for the lenses. Even though it is still allowed, you should never use a glass lenses for sports activities. Even when produced to safety standards, glass is extremely dangerous compared to high impact resistant modern plastic lens materials. They may not be your everyday glasses and it is probably a good idea that they are not. Saving them especially for sports, keeps them strong and in good working order.
Contact lenses are an option for many sports enthusiasts. The wider field of clear peripheral vision can give marked advantages in some sports. Depending on the sport you may still need clear protective goggles over the contacts. While wearing contact lenses during sports can be easier and safer, contact lenses for hard to fit eyes or for those with unusual type of astigmatism, sometimes make it a choice that requires a careful discussion with your optometrist.. Contact lens eye exams will help the optometrist determine the best eye wear for you. Unless you have 20/20 vision, corrective lenses will be prescribed. Even with perfect vision, you should still have protective eye glasses for many sports.
Most eye doctors offices carry an array of frames in different styles, colors and shapes to fit most any lifestyle. Let your doctor know whether you are looking for fashion eye wear or sports eye wear. The doctor should be able to point you to the best frames for you. There are designer eye glasses for sports that are very popular and very resistant, giving you the eye protection you need. For those who complain of the sun hurting their eyes, specially designed tinted lenses are in order. There are many choices for eye protection that include options like protection from ultraviolet rays and anti-reflection coatings to improve the crispness of vision.
Some sports require unusual lens options. Target Shooting for people over the age of 40 often requires lenses able to focus on the sights at a distance not normally utilized. Competitive swimmers may benefit from goggles’ with the prescription ground into the lenses. Bicycle riders have to combat blowing wind and sweat produced on warm days on their forehead. Fishing and water sports benefit greatly from polarized lenses that eliminate the glare from water surfaces.Whatever your sport, there are usually some unique needs that should be addressed.
Playing sports out on a field with ultraviolet radiation exposure can result in ultraviolet light eye damage. Some prescription and herbal drugs cause light sensitivity and also call for specially tinted lenses to avoid squinting and eye damage. Regular eye exams are necessary for proper eye health and to maintain your vision.
Make sure to ask your eye doctor about options and advise them of your recreational activities, prescription medications, and any nutritional supplements you are taking. It may just save your sight. The number of preventable injuries every year is staggering. Take the time to protect your families eyesight. It is a small cost to compared to a lifetime of blindness.
Preventable blindness occurs all too often from sports injuries. Most sports related eye injuries in children can be prevented with the appropriate form of protective eyewear. Regular eye glasses are inadequate, safety frames and lenses such as rec specs with side shields, goggles, eye guards and other forms of protection are required. 
Polycarbonate lenses are considered the standard for sports due to their extreme resistance to shattering. Frames need deeper and special grooves to hold the lenses so they won’t displace into the eye on sudden impact.
The most sports related eye injuries in children age 14 and under occur in baseball. Baseball velocities in 12 year olds can easily reach 60 to 70 mph. The injury rate for baseball starts to decline after 14 because student athletes start to gain better control and placement of the ball. Basketball is a close second with hands and fingers close to opponents eyes frequently resulting in injuries.
Other sports considered high risk are boxing, hockey, paintball, and court sports like racquetball and squash. There have been incidents in the past where participants wore protective eyewear without lenses and the high velocity of the racquetball allowed it to squeeze through the opening and maintain enough velocity to result in a detached retina.
The economic cost is staggering at close to 200 million dollars per year. You have act as an advocate for eye protection for your family since many organized and most informal sports activities do not have adequate requirements. Spend time discussing your options with your child’s eye doctor. Your optometrist is not the only persons advice you should be seeking. Many sports can result in serious repetitive mild head injuries with long term ramifications. If your child is engaged in high risk sports discuss head protection with your family doctor. Cities like Fort Collins place high value on outdoor recreational activities for our children and you should consider protective eye glasses a necessary addition to all of the gear. Vision is irreplaceable and teenagers are hard headed but sometimes not enough!
