April Is Eye Sports Safety Month - Get Safety Tips

April is eye sports safety month. During sports excursions, you usually take precautions to protect your fingers, legs, arms, and other body parts from unnecessary injuries. While all this is great, it is even more crucial to protect our eyes. Eyewear is essential in some sports, but even in sports that do not necessitate eyewear, you need to know how and when you should be protecting your eyes.

 

Why Does Eye Safety Matter?

Eye injuries are among the leading causes of blindness in children, and most of these injuries are related to sporting activities. What makes that even more distressing is that most of these sports-related injuries could have been avoided by putting on protective eyewear. So, let us look at the various safety tips for different sports.

 

The Right Eye Protection for Different Sports

Some sports necessitate eye protection, while others might not specifically need eye protection, but it is still a good idea to use it. The sports where eye protection is a necessity include skiing, snowboarding, hockey, American football, swimming, archery, and lacrosse. For these sporting activities, you will usually find specialized goggles or face masks being used together with other protective gear.
 

For sports like biking, tennis, baseball, basketball, and soccer, an excellent eye protection option is polycarbonate goggles, which can be worn in place of glasses. Polycarbonate is a stronger material than conventional plastic and resists shock when hit by an object. These polycarbonate goggles can be specially customized to match vision prescriptions to help you wear them without the need for prescription glasses during sporting activities.

 

Tips for Finding the Right Eye Protection for You

• Ask your eye specialist to customize prescription eye guards so that you can protect your prescription glasses. Athletes with one healthy eye only should ask their doctor about safe sports for them. A monocular athlete should always wear eye protection.
   

• To be certain that your eyes are well-protected, it is crucial that your protective eyewear is approved by ASTM F803. This approval is tested to provide the highest levels of eye protection.
   

• Ensure that your eye protection has lenses. Only eye guards with lenses are appropriate for sporting activities. If there is an accident, the lenses should pop outward or stay in place. Lenses that are in close contact with your eyes can be extremely dangerous.
   

• The formation of fog on the lenses is a challenge for athletes. There are eye guards that come with an anti-fog coating. Also, you can find types with side openings, which provide extra ventilation. Trying several types of eye guards will help you find the most suitable one for you.
   

• A cushioned or padded along the bridge and brow of your nose sports eye protector will prevent injuries to your skin.

Let an optometrist help you find the right gear! If you are not sure about the type of gear that best suits your sport, come see us at Grove Eye Care in Richmond or Midlothian, Virginia. We will help you choose the right protective eyewear to keep you at the top of your game. For a custom eye guard that suits your sporting needs, call our offices at (804) 353-3937 or (804) 888-8998 to schedule an appointment.