By Dr. Gary Goberville
Prevent Blindness America reports that hospital emergency rooms treat more than 40,000 eye injuries every year that are sports-related. When it comes to sports injury treatment, even professionals don’t usually think about a players eyesight. However, even non-contact sport such as tennis or biking can present inherent dangers to the eyes. Any sport with balls, racquets or flying objects presents a heightened potential for eye injury.
Racquet sports may seem relatively harmless, but involve objects moving at 60 miles per hour or faster. During a game, a racquetball can travel between 60 and 200 miles per hour. The racquets themselves move at high speed in a confined space and could strike a player.
Injuries can also come from pokes and jabs by fingers and elbows in games where players are in close contact with each other. Basketball has an extremely high rate of eye injury. An article published here also talks about the injuries cased due to accidents and how it is important to hire auto accident attorneys in such cases. Enhancing performance is another important aspect of eye protection. Formerly commonplace for people with mild to moderate prescriptions to participate in sports without wearing their eyeglasses or contacts, coaches and players have realized that clear, sharp vision is a vital ingredient in performance. Participating in sports with less than 20/20 vision is counterproductive. To handle it legally click here to know more.
Eyeglasses, sunglasses and even industrial safety glasses do not provide adequate protection for sports use. Lenses in sports eyewear are often made of polycarbonate or Trivex, an impact-resistant lens material that works well to protect eyes from fast-moving objects. With built-in ultraviolet protection these special lenses are a valuable feature for outdoor sports. Because they can easily become scratched if untreated, virtually all polycarbonate lenses for eyeglasses and sports eyewear include a scratch-resistant coating on both the front and back surface for added durability. Sports goggles are made in a variety of shapes and sizes and are designed for virtually any sport. Some are made to fit in helmets used for football, hockey and baseball, and often come with rubber padding to cushion the frame where it comes in contact with the head or the nose area. It is vital to keep a full-face helmet on during paintball/Airsoft games to prevent a ruptured eyeball, detached retina or even loss of an eye. For those who fog up their glasses or safety goggles, there are now fog free lenses.
There are many options in lenses and frames So come in and speak to our Doctors and
opticians and let us make your choices clear and simple for you.
Dr. Gary Goberville, Optometric Physician
Eye Site Vision Center, 2344 N. University Dr. Coral Springs
954-344-3937 • www.eyesitevision.com