My son is starting to play sports. Do I need
to get him special eye protection?
Children are more likely to get sport injuries than adults because their coordination is less well developed as they are still growing and they take longer to react to dangerous situations than adults. As well, children grow at different rates. If you take four eight-year-olds and put them side by side, there can be a great variation in size, strength, height and weight between them. This means that a smaller child playing sports with larger children is more likely to be injured. Any injury to the eyes is potentially dangerous and can threaten vision. In sports, injuries can be caused by apparatus (racquets, bats, etc) or body parts (elbows, fingers, etc). There are low-risk sports like running, swimming, and cycling, where the danger of ocular injury is lower. High risk sports use high-speed balls, as in squash or racquetball, or shuttlecocks in badminton, or hockey sticks.
Also falling into the category of high-risk sports are basketball, boxing and contact martial arts, where injury can be caused by an opponent’s body. It’s important for your child to use the proper equipment and safety gear that is the correct size and fits well. For example, kids should wear helmets for softball, bicycle riding, and skateboarding. For racquet sports and basketball, it will be appropriate to wear protective eyewear like shatterproof goggles. Ask your child’s teacher/coach for advice about safety equipment for your child.
How can the eye be injured?
The most common cause of sport injuries is blunt trauma. This occurs when something hits you in the eye and results in bruising and eyelid swelling, typically called a ‘black eye.’ In more serious cases, there can be an orbital blowout fracture (a broken bone under the eyeball), a ruptured globe (physical tearing of the globe (eyeball), a detached retina (the part of the eye that is responsible for vision), and even a haemorrhage (bleeding) within the eye.
Penetrating injuries occur when something cuts into your eye. These injuries are not very common. You can get a penetrating injury if your eyeglasses break while you are wearing them, if another person’s finger scratches you in the eye, or if a fishing hook gets caught in your eye. Penetrating eye injuries range from mild to deep cuts.
As well, any injury of the eye can traumatize the iris, the coloured part of the eye and lead to an inflammatory condition called iritis.
What can I do to protect my eyes?
In most sports, avoiding eye injury is easiest done by wearing protective eyewear. Today the best goggles are made with polycarbonate lenses, the plastic used in jet canopies. They’re virtually indestructible, scratch resistant, and light – they weigh about the same as eyeglasses and are quite comfortable.
You can get non-prescription goggles from sports stores. For those patients who need prescription to see clearly in the distance, goggles are available where the prescription can be inserted instead of regular lenses (see an optometrist about this). In either case, be sure the product label says it meets safety standards.
They have to be large enough to protect the whole front surface of the eye. In addition, in racquet sports, the ball changes shape as it speeds up, and can fit through small spaces, so there has to be full coverage all around the eye. Some people feel that regular prescription glasses are enough protection, but they are not.
Keeping the eyes safe in sport is important. Last year, for example, US hospital emergency rooms treated almost 50,000 sport-related eye injuries. The risk is real. No athlete has ever regretted buying eye protectors, but those with injuries surely regret not having them.
