Patient Education

Outdoor sports
An athlete should protect his or her eyes from excessive sun exposure during outdoor sports. The amount of light reaching the eye can be reduced by wearing UV protecting lenses. These lenses will protect the eye from radiation damage, which can cause diseases like early cataract formation.

Water sports
Prescription athletic eyewear is available for sports such as swimming and scuba-diving where eyeglasses and contacts are not practical. Prescription goggles and/or diving masks are a convenient way to provide the athlete with a prescription as well as protection.

Sports-related eye injuries
Did you know that more then 500,000 people suffer from sports-related eye injuries each year? The most common eye injury results from basketball, usually due to a finger or elbow penetrating the eye. However, baseball, racquetball, hockey, and other sports are also frequently related to eye injury. The severity of eye injuries range from corneal abrasions and bruises, fractured eye sockets and facial bones, eye hemorrhages and retinal detachments, to blindness from a direct hit crushing the eyeball.

Over 90% of sports-related eye injuries can be prevented by wearing protective eyewear. Eyeglasses and contact lenses do not provide protection and may actually place an athlete at an increased risk for eye injury. This is because plastic and glass lenses shatter when struck by a ball. Protective athletic eyewear are made with polycarbonate plastics which are highly resistant to impact. Protective athletic eyewear should therefore be considered as necessary equipment for all sports activities.