Our eyes are incredibly important organs in the body, responsible for one of the most important senses, our vision. For this reason, we must take care and take active steps to protect them.
There are a variety of ways to protect our eyes. This can include taking care of our systemic health, making sure that the rest of the body is healthy, as many conditions will have effects on the eyes.
Eye protection can also refer to actions that relate to the health of the eyes in particular, such as using eye drops or daily cleaning of the eyelids and eyelashes.
Lastly, and what we will discuss in this article, are methods to physically ensure the well-being of our eyes. These include preventing harm from ultraviolet (UV) sun rays or physical trauma from objects.
Protecting Your Eyes with Sunglasses
Many individuals will already have this line of protection. A pair of sunglasses can help to block out harmful UV rays that have the potential to induce or speed up the progression of conditions such as a cataract, a clouding of the lens within the eye, or a pterygium, a growth of the conjunctiva that covers the white part of the eye onto the clear cornea.
There are various levels of UV protection, with certain lenses only covering for specific portions of the light spectrum. For the best protection, having a good pair of sunglasses that covers all UV rays is important, although UV A and B are key.
The other option to consider is polarized lenses, which are a special type of sunglass lens that block out light rays that travel in a specific orientation. This means that more light is blocked out, without compromising how dark the lenses are.
Another advantage of these lenses are that they decrease glare from horizontal surfaces and allow you to see through the surface of the water, a beneficial feature for those that love fishing. The downfall is that polarized lenses are often more expensive and can induce some patterns when looking at computer or phone screens.
Protect Your Eyes with Safety Glasses
Physical protection for your eyes can come in the form of safety glasses for work such as grinding or wood working. In these situations, safety approved glasses will be needed to ensure the best protection as each lens is generated based on a safety standard that has been tested to withstand impact.
These safety glasses can come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with some providing facial coverage as well. Some provide more coverage by wrapping the frames around the face to prevent small particles from gaining access to your eyes.
Certain types also have the potential to allow for a prescription to be put into the lenses, thus negating the need for two pairs of glasses.
Another type of safety eyewear would be for devices that emit damaging light such as when operating machinery with lasers. The harmful rays from these machines can leave permanent damage on the eyes and thus require proper care.
Look into the guidelines for the machinery you want to operate and bring it to our office to see what we can assist you with.