Eye injuries during sports account for about 40,000 eye injuries each year, some of which are serious enough to require surgery, and may even result in permanent vision loss. That’s not to say you should give up on your physical activity of choice for the sake of your eyes (especially since exercise can help stave off Type-2 Diabetes and Age-Related Macular Degeneration, the two biggest causes of adult vision loss). No, keep playing your sports, just make sure you protect your eyes while you do it. You can do this by understanding what eye injuries are common during sports, how risky your particular sport is, and understanding what you can do to prevent your eyes and the surrounding bones and tissue from becoming damaged.
What Types of Eye Injuries Occur While Playing Sports
The most common type of eye injury most people get while playing sports is blunt-force trauma. Blunt force trauma injuries occur when a blunt object strikes the eye, or the surrounding bones and tissue and damages the eye. This type of impact can cause severe injuries, such as a detached retina, or even facial fractures.
Next we have a radiation injury, which is caused by not wearing proper eye protection while out in direct sunlight. As a general rule, it’s difficult to get such an injury during a single outing, and usually occurs due to the cumulative effects of not wearing adequate eye protection like sunglasses, or in the case of impact sports that require a helmet, a tinted visor with UV protection.
Finally, a penetrating injury occurs when a piece of debris from a field, or a finger, or other such object penetrates either into the globe of the eye itself, or into the space surrounding the eye and causes damage. This is often the most difficult type of common eye injury to treat.
How Likely are Eye Injuries to Occur While Playing Your Sport?
Accidents happen, and you should always be on the look out for circumstances that could damage your eyes, but as a general rule, sports can be divided into three risk categories where eye injuries are concerned.
Low-Risk Sports
Include things like running, gymnastics, swimming, and cycling, where there are no balls, pucks, or racquets in use and there is no (intentional) body-contact. During these sports it’s still important to wear sunglasses when in direct or indirect sunlight and to keep your eyes from drying out.
High-Risk Sports
Sports such as, baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and other impact sports, or sports that use a ball, puck, or racquet. These sports account for the most eye injuries as many people who play them, play them without adequate eye protection. Baseball and basketball players in particular are at risk because of the lack of inherent head and eye protection during those activities. Football players who play without a visor are also prone to injuries, intentional or accidental, from other players.
Very High-Risk Sports
Activities that are considered very high-risk are those where damaging body contact is the end goal. This includes boxing, wrestling, and other contact-based martial arts.
So How do I Prevent Eye Injuries While Playing Sports?
First and foremost, talk to your doctor about the sport you play, or any hobbies you have. They can make specific recommendations based on your sport or activity of choice, and can help you select the appropriate level of eye-protection best suited to your individual case. Other than that, following general rules of eye protection like wearing impact-resistant glasses during physical activity, shielding your eyes from the sun, and wearing the appropriate eye-protection for the activity at hand are all extremely important.
These steps go a very long way towards protecting your eyes, even during the most demanding activities. Talk to your eye doctor at Advanced Medical Group to learn how to keep your eyes safe, and healthy, for years to come.