Eye protection is basically designed to protect your eyes and sometimes the face from injuries caused while involved in sports or due to wind blast or as simple as due to heat. It acts like protective gear that safeguards you from infections to injuries.
Eye Protection – A Must While Playing Sports
Damage to the cornea, bruised eyes, retinal detachments, and internal bleeding are a few common injuries faced by sportsmen or athletes. Some of the low violent sports activities also carry a huge risk of damages to the eye. Dr. Dianna Seldomridge, a clinical spokesperson of the American Academy of ophthalmology, states, “Getting athletes of any age to wear protective eyewear is a challenge.”
The three common types of eye protection include safety glasses (like sunglasses), goggles, and face shields which have their own advantages and disadvantages depending upon the type of sport played by the athletes. Regardless of the disadvantages, athletes must put on their eye protection while playing, which may help them prevent unwanted injuries that may lead to not being able to play the sport at all.
Statistics from the United States of America show that every year roughly thirty thousand people suffer from eye injuries caused while playing sports. The American Academy of Ophthalmology suggests that ninety percentages of the people suffering from sports-acquitted eye injuries may have prevented the injury by wearing protective eyewear.
Not just athletes, but parents shall make sure that their children are always protected with eyewear and face shields while playing their favorite sports because even the smallest of the injuries might lead to greater problems as they grow into adults, specified by the leading group of eye specialists.
Every sport requires different kinds of protective wears such as for baseball, choose a plastic or polycarbonate face guard with goggles; for basketball, just wearing goggles would work; for soccer, the players are suggested to wear eye guards; for football, both eyes, as well as the face, shall be guarded; for hockey, the players need a face mask made from wire or polycarbonate; for tennis, just the goggles would be helpful.
Make sure to check sport-specific requirements while buying these protective wear. Do not use eyewear that’s yellowed or damaged as it may not be helpful. Go for UV-protected eyewear to protect you against sunburn or glare while performing snow and water sports.
Contact lenses or sight eyeglasses are not a replacement for protective eyewear, so the athletes with eyesight shall also consider wearing eye safety glasses. The doctors suggest people approach them as soon as they meet with an injury because negligence could lead to more intense damages that might develop in the future, which may then not be in a condition for a successful treatment.
Seldomridge also states that “Ophthalmologists get a variety of reasons for not getting enough protection to eyes by people. However, the same is much improved in last some years”. With such improvising in the eyewear, there is a hope that it may lead to a rise in people using this protective eyewear.
With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.