Sports personalities always take precaution to protect their arms, legs, fingers and other parts of their bodies. All that is great because you shouldn’t have to sustain unnecessary injuries. 

But it’s even more important that you protect your eyes. Some sporting activities require you to have protective eyewear. Even for those sports that don’t demand for it, it’s still important that you protect yourself. 

One of the leading causes of blindness among school going children is sports-related injuries. According to the National Eye Institute, 90 percent of sports-related injuries can be prevented using protective eyewear.

Different Ways of Improving Eye Safety and Health in Sports

Different kinds of sports activities have different levels of eye-injury. So it’s important to ensure that you’re using the right kind of eye protection. Note that regular eye glasses will not give you the right kind of protection. That’s because such glasses can easily shatter. 

Be careful when taking part in sporting activities that involve projectiles and other sharp objects. If you have an eye injury, rush to the nearest emergency room even if it’s minor. 

Let’s now get to the reason for this article, which is the different ways of enhancing your eye safety in sports.

1. Swap to Contact Lenses for Contact Sports

One of your worries when using prescription sports sunglasses might be the fear of clear vision. For better protection of your vision, you can swap to contact lenses while playing. 

Contact lenses have many benefits, including an improved vision and ease of use. They are a great vision correction alternative for sports like surfing or swimming. It’s impractical to wear prescription glasses yet you need great vision. That’s why we recommend swapping contact lenses. 

You run the risk of pterygium if you fail to adequately protect your eyes. If you don’t use contact lenses during water sports, go for daily lenses. Then remove them after training or your matches to minimize the risk of eye abrasions or injuries.

Prescription sports sunglasses online have good quality sunglasses. These will be a better option if you’re uncomfortable with your contact lenses. Keep in mind that exposure to UV rays has been linked to photokeratitis, cataracts, and pterygium. So you must take advantage of the options available to protect your eyesight.  

2. Protective Eyewear for Field Sports

Sports activities that happen on dry land have a range of custom protection equipment. In such sports, eye protection gets combined with other safeguarding elements depending on the exact kind of sports. 

An example is the fast and relatively high risk contact activity like American football. They use a full helmet and a metal grille alongside a tough polycarbonate eye shield. 

The other group that wears a hard helmet that has a full face shield attached are hockey keepers. Cricketing batsmen and baseball hitters use rigid helmets with a tough metal grille. 

Risks of injury are more direct and focused in a sport like fencing. Here, mobility is more tightly constrained. For that reason, the face and the eyes must be shielded by a full mesh mask. 

3. Protecting Your Eyes From Elements

A lot of sports activities take place in the open air. This means that participants get exposed to strong sunlight for extended periods. 

Many players understand the need to protect their skin against sunburn and harmful UV rays. However, very few realize that they run the same risk with their vision. Excessive ultraviolet rays can have a lasting impact on your vision. 

Training or playing in the field for long hours on a sunny day increases the risk of serious eye diseases. This includes eye cancers and cataracts. You may be a participant or a spectator. But if the sport takes place outdoors, it would be best to wear sunglasses. This will ensure that you have 100 percent protection from UVA and UVB rays. 

You’re likely to encounter rain, strong winds, and snow when taking part in sports like sailing and high altitude skiing. Such weather conditions also pose further visual challenges. 

Ball-playing athletes like cricketers and baseball players are expected to field a ball or take a catch while looking directly at the sun. Now, a peaked cap or a wide-brimmed floppy hat will afford you some kind of protection. However, anyone taking part in a sport where they sometimes look at the sun must wear sunglasses. 

4. Proper Prevention

All it takes to prevent eye-related sports injuries is wearing the right eye protection. Doing this will help you to avoid a lot of injuries to the eyes. 

It’s not a good idea for you to wear regular glasses when playing sports because they can shatter. You need to get eye protectors that are padded. Alternatively, you need to ensure that eye protectors are cushioned along the brow and bridge of the nose. This guarantees that they don’t cut or dig into the skin upon impact. 

Your sports eye protection must have 100 percent ultra violet protection to protect your eyes from damaging rays.  

5. Get Regular Dilated Eye Exams and a Full Family History

You may be a sports person or not, but regular eye exams are a must for everyone. It’s recommended that everybody gets an eye test at least once in every two years. It makes it easy for your optician to spot potential problems earlier on. It helps to reduce the impact the problem may have on your life and sport.

It’s also good to be familiar with your family’s history to be proactive about the health of your eyes. That’s because a history of eye problems in the family increases your risk of developing it. Yet, you want your vision to always be clear when playing.  

6. Wear Proper Safety Goggles

The human eyes are delicate structures prone to injuries. The best way to protect them is by using physical barriers. It helps to prevent intrusion from foreign objects. 

Sports goggles come in various shapes, sizes, and feature impact-resistant lenses. They are designed to fit snug to the face and prevent injuries. Majority of the sports goggles are fitted with either prescription or non-prescription lenses. 

Safety goggles are great for many sports. However, they are particularly important for basketball players. That’s because an opponent’s fingers in this sport can easily make contact with your face while defending.

Final Take Away

We believe that you now understand how to prevent eye-related injuries. And as such, we’d advise that you research to find the right eye protection for yourself or a loved one that’s into sports. 

Finally, you must go to the nearest emergency room if you ever get sports-related injuries. Then follow up later with the eye doctor.