April is Sports Eye Safety and Facial Protection Awareness Month
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April is Sports Eye Safety and National Facial Protection Awareness Month. Facial protection gear helps prevent facial trauma injuries. For all age groups, sports-related eye injuries occur most frequently in water sports, basketball, and baseball/softball. Whatever your game, whatever your age, you need to protect your eyes and your face with proper protective gear! Lemak Health serves the Birmingham Bulls as their official team doctor and we have seen firsthand, the importance of facial protection. The combination of quick changes of direction, contact and a hard puck traveling at high speeds provides an ideal environment for facial injuries. There is a need for facial protection across all sports for all ages. The good news is that almost all of these injuries can be prevented.
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Take the following steps to avoid traumatic facial sports injuries: |
- Wear proper safety goggles (lensed polycarbonate protectors) for racquet sports or basketball. Eye guards and sports protective eyewear labeled as ASTM F803 approved are performance tested to give you the highest levels of protection.
- Understand that regular glasses don't provide enough protection and could actually harm you further if an accident occurs.
- Use batting helmets with polycarbonate face shields for youth baseball.
- Use helmets and face shields approved by the U.S. Amateur Hockey Association when playing hockey.