“Adults and children in Boston are ready up for all kinds of outdoor sports this time of year-they need to consider the need for proper eye protection,” commented Massachusetts Ophthalmologist Francis D'Ambrosio, Jr. M.D. of D'Ambrosio Eye Care. Protecting your eyes playing sports is an important way to help preserve your eye health and vision sometimes gets overlooked. Tens of thousands of sports and recreation-related eye injuries occur each year. The good news is that 90 percent of serious eye injuries are preventable through use of appropriate protective eyewear. The risk of eye injury can vary depending on the activity. Make sure the level of eye protection you or others in your family use is appropriate for the type of activity. Regular eyeglasses do not offer proper eye protection.
Across all age groups, sports-related eye injuries occur most frequently in baseball, basketball and racquet sports. Further, boxing and full-contact martial arts pose an extremely high risk of serious and even blinding eye injuries and there is really no satisfactory eye protection for boxing, although thumbless gloves may reduce the number of boxing eye injuries. When playing baseball, ice hockey and men’s lacrosse, a helmet with a polycarbonate lightweight shatterproof face mask or wire shield should be worn at all times. In general, hockey face masks be approved by the Hockey Equipment Certification Council or the Canadian Standards Association (CSA). Last protective eyewear with polycarbonate lenses should be worn for sports such as basketball, racquet sports, soccer and field hockey.
If you need additional information, or help regarding how to select the best eyewear to protect you while playing sports, please feel free to phone D'Ambrosio Eye Care at 800-325-3937. You may also request an appointment at facebook.com/dambrosioeyecare.
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