How Do I Protect My Eyes While Playing Sports?

We wear helmets and knee pads to protect our bones and joints, so why not protect our eyes, too? Permanent vision loss is much more difficult to mend than a broken bone.

The consequences of playing sports with unprotected eyes are endless. You could suffer a corneal abrasion, blunt injuries or penetrating injuries. Your Indiana eye doctor warns that several of these incidents can permanently damage your vision!

WebMD has the following recommendations on how to protect your eyes while playing your favorite sports:

• Baseball. In the event of an errant pitch, a ball lost in the sun or a thrown bat, a baseball player should wear a faceguard made of a sturdy plastic or polycarbonate metal material along with eye goggles or eye guards.
• Basketball. Basketball players should wear eye goggles at all times in the event of an errant elbow, a stray poke from another player’s finger, or even an errantly thrown basketball.
• Soccer and football. Like other contact sports, an errant elbow, ball, foot, or finger can cause serious damage to the unprotected eye. Players should wear sports eye guards and in football a full faceguard should also be worn.
• Hockey. Sticks, pucks, and elbows all fly freely during a hockey match, and a player should wear a full polycarbonate material or wire mask to prevent eye and other possible facial injuries.
• Tennis or racquetball. To protect your eyes from an errant or misjudged ball, or in the case of racquetball your opponents racquet, protective eye goggles should be worn at all times while playing these sports.

Dr. Tavel and his board certified associates are ready to help you discover the best eye protection for your active lifestyle.