Optical Prism March 2020 | Page 35

Special feature Q. What can people do to properly protect their eyes during sport? A. Eye protection can reduce the number and severity of eye injuries. Depending on the sport, people could use shatter-re- sistant lens materials, sport frames and facemasks. A sport frame is designed to shift the impact force away from the delicate eye area to more sturdy bones of the skull, decreasing the likelihood of damage. Dr. Kirsten North Recently, Optical Prism magazine spoke with the CAO’s Q. Why is it important for ECPs to educate their patients in-house policy consultant, Dr. Kirsten North, about about the potential risks to their eyes during sport? sports-related eye injuries and how to prevent this A. Studies have shown that 90 per cent of sport-related eye potentially catastrophic harm. injuries could have been prevented. While sunglasses do of- fer protection from UV rays for outdoor sports, neither they Q. What potential risks do sports pose to the eyes? nor contact lenses offer protection for sport-related play. A. The most common sports-related eye injuries An ECP should educate patients on appropriate eyewear for involve blunt trauma, from sports equipment or other safe play. OP players. The resulting damage will depend on the size, solidity and velocity of the object, but can include fractures of the bones around the eye, bleeding inside the eye, retinal tears and detachments and surface abrasions, to name a few. Q. What sports are most concerning to optometrists and why? A. Racquet sports tend to cause optometrists the most concern because the ball/birdie is moving at a high rate of speed and is usually the right size to get past the brow bones and impacts the eyeball directly. However, basketball and baseball are the leading causes of eye injuries each year. Q. In what cases are regular glasses not enough pro- tection during sport? A. Regular glasses are not appropriate for eye protec- tion if the sport involves collision or body contact (e.g., football, baseball, basketball) or if there is a projectile involved (e.g., racket sports, golf). But even in lower-risk sports for ocular injury (e.g., cycling, gymnastics, swimming), there is still a possibility for eye injury and UV damage. Optical Prism | March 2020 33