It is spring and everywhere you look people are out exercising and playing sports and getting injured. Many of us know how to prevent sprains, strains, and other injuries, but how many of us know what we should be doing to protect our eyes? Culver Boldt, MD, ophthalmologist at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, talks about eye safety:
Most of us probably don't think about injuring our eyes when we play sports, but apparently it is more common that we know. Tell us about that.
It's estimated that about 100,000 eye injuries from sports occur each year in the US. Many of the victims are children, many of whom suffer permanent visual impairment. For young athletes, baseball and basketball account for the largest number of injuries. With spring baseball starting, it's important to realize Little League pitchers may throw the ball up to 70 mph—fast enough to break bones and do some pretty serious damage to the eye.
What injuries can occur? Can they be serious?
Injuries can vary from abrasions to the cornea and bruises of the lids to fairly serious internal injuries such as retinal detachment and internal bleeding. These internal injuries frequently end with permanent vision loss and sometimes total blindness.
What can be done to prevent such injuries?
The American Academy of Ophthalmology and Eye specialists urge athletes to wear protective eyewear when playing sports. Specific eyewear is available for just about all activities. The recommendations for the type of protection will vary according to the risk of the sport. For example, something like tennis which is relatively low risk—for singles tennis at least—street wear frames of polycarbonate lenses are adequate. For a higher risk sport like baseball, a polycarbonate faceguard on the helmet is recommended for batting and for base running. Most protective eye wear, including goggles, face shields, and guards, should be made of an impact resistant material like polycarbonate plastic. The glasses and frames must be properly fitted by an eye care professional.
How effective is that? Wouldn't regular glasses be as effective in preventing injuries?
Regular glasses just do not offer enough protection for sports. These polycarbonate lenses that I mentioned are 20 times stronger than regular glasses. Studies have shown that by wearing the right protective eyewear, more than 90 percent of eye injuries can be prevented.
Do sports leagues and school sports teams usually require players to wear eye protection?
Fortunately, there's a trend in this country requiring children to wear eye protection, but still many sports leagues, schools, and teams don't have this as a requirement. Parents must insist that their children wear eye protection every time they play and set a good example by wearing eye protection themselves when they play sports.
What about athletes who might be concerned that the eye protection might hinder their performance?
There's no good evidence that wearing properly fitting eye protection hampers athletic performance. I think this can be demonstrated by many famous athletes, such as NBA All-Star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Eric Dickerson an NFL player, and major league baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, who have all excelled in their respective sports while wearing protective eyewear. |
