LASIK & Sports
Did you know April is Sports Eye Safety month? As such, we wanted to bring you some timely information to help you and your loved ones protect your eyes during your favorite activities. Whether you’re a casual pickleball enthusiast, a professional basketball player or anything in between, it’s important to know that playing sports can cause eye injuries.
In fact, nearly 30,000 sports-related eye injuries are treated in U.S. emergency rooms each year. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the vast majority of these injuries are preventable. Here are some ways to put athlete safety first and focus on eye injury prevention.
The Benefits of Laser Eye Surgery
If you wear prescription glasses, you might think they’re enough to protect your eyes during an athletic event. Or, you might simply choose to wear them because you need to see better during a game, and don’t have another option.
The fact is that “prescription glasses, sunglasses and even occupational safety glasses do not provide adequate protection” during sporting events. We’ll get to what can protect your eyes adequately in a moment, but this brings up an important point.
If you’re an athletic person and need vision correction, your best bet is to consider LASIK laser eye surgery. That way, you can take your prescription glasses completely out of the equation when you’re gearing up for an activity in which your eyes might be at risk. Another idea is to think about getting contact lenses, although we’ve found that LASIK is the ideal option for most athletes.
Eye Injury Prevention
If glasses don’t shield your eyes from sports injuries, what can? The answer is incredibly simple: activity-specific eye guards. For example, the AAO recommends that “protective sports glasses with shatterproof plastic, called polycarbonate lenses, should be worn for sports such as basketball, racquet sports, soccer and field hockey.”
If you plan to participate in ice hockey or men’s lacrosse, the AAO advises you to wear a helmet with a polycarbonate face mask or wire shield. Interested in combat sports? Considering they “pose an extremely high risk of serious and even blinding eye injuries,” there isn’t an eye protection method that can satisfactorily prevent harm.
When it comes to athlete safety, eye injury prevention is always the best method. Consider getting LASIK or contacts so you don’t feel compelled to wear prescription glasses during your sport of choice, and make sure you’ve chosen the top eye guards for your specific activity. These are the best eye safety tips for ultimate protection during athletics.
Have more questions or are you ready to schedule an exam? You can book an appointment online here!