How much would you pay for your eyesight? It’s a question most people wouldn’t think to ask, but the answers are profound. Really, people would pay just about any worldly price for the gift of sight. People who suffer eye injuries or develop diseases that affect their sight find their lives drastically changed overnight. To help you avoid such hardship, we’re listing eight ways to protect your vision.
1. The best way to fight disease, as they say, is prevention. Protect your vision by keeping regular eye exam appointments. Catching serious eye diseases, such as glaucoma and certain cancers, in their earliest stages can mean the difference between sight and blindness. In general, people take their ocular health for granted. It’s the same attitude that leads people to perform dangerous activities without wearing proper eye protection.
2. It may surprise you that thousands of people come to emergency rooms every year with burnt corneas – from the sun, that is. Though protecting your skin from the sun’s ultraviolet rays has become common practice, applying the same defense to the eyes may seem like a foreign concept. If you wear prescription glasses, get lenses that have UV protection. If you don’t wear prescription glasses, buy a pair of sunglasses with UV protection. These are cheap and readily available.
3. Besides staying current with your eye exams, regular check-ups with a general practitioner can help to diagnose chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure), which are two leading causes of eye diseases that can result in blindness.
4. Don’t ignore warning signs that something may be wrong. If you suspect something is wrong with your eyes or your vision, call our office as soon as possible.
Though it may seem impossible to avoid the “freak accidents” that cause most traumatic eye injuries, taking a few precautions can make all the difference.
5. If you’re doing any work around the house, especially with power tools, wear industry-strength goggles. Regular glasses will not provide any protection against nails or flying debris.
6. Be especially cautious around household chemicals (bleach being the most common).
7. Always wear protective eyewear while playing contact sports.
8. Take special care to avoid the eyes when infected with poison ivy, oak, or sumac. These plants cause rashes that pose little more than an annoyance when on the skin, however, serious complications may occur if the rash spreads to the eye.
Obviously, there are more than eight ways to protect your vision. Over-precaution is the best approach. Usually, this involves something as simple as putting on goggles.
