Eight Ways To Ruin Your Eyesight

July 20, 2020

Have you ever wondered how to quickly and seriously damage your eyesight? It’s much easier than you think. Here are eight ways to ruin your eyesight.

Playing Racquet Sports Without Wearing Goggles

The anatomy around your eye provides some protection against injuries thanks to the protruding bones around your eye socket. Even with that, close proximity racquet sports with small and fast-moving balls — particularly racquetball and squash — can result in serious eye injuries if the ball strikes a player in the face.

Eye injuries can be easily avoided by wearing goggles made of polycarbonate material. They can even be made with your prescription built-in.

Performing Home Improvement Projects Without Wearing Goggles

Sawing, hammering, and demolition all produce flying particles that can quickly and seriously damage your eye and contribute to vision loss even when you’re not working overhead. Preventing foreign objects from entering your eyes and causing traumatic injury, irritation, or infection is as easy as wearing appropriate eye protection. You can buy goggles anywhere you buy tools and building supplies.

Wearing Your Contacts Continuously

Different brands and types of contacts are designed to be worn for different lengths of time before being cleaned or replaced with a new set. Wearing your contact lenses beyond those recommended durations can cause serious problems. How?

Your corneas, on which your contacts sit, have no blood vessels to supply them with oxygen. They need oxygen on a regular basis but have only one source for it — tears. If you wear your contacts continuously, your tears are never able to deliver oxygen to your corneas.

…Even In Water

Contact lenses are not designed for prolonged contact with water. Don’t wear your contacts while swimming or showering. When you do take your contacts out to soak and clean according to their instructions, use only the recommended saline solution.

Tap water, well water, and water in pools and hot tubs contain parasites such as the very common Acanthamoeba that can cause eye infections. You can avoid the risk of that infection by removing contact lenses before they’re exposed to water, then cleaning your hands carefully after they get wet and before re-inserting your contact lenses.

Rubbing Your Eyes

Balling your fist and rubbing your eyes is an instinctive reaction when your eye feels irritated, or as if there is something stuck on your eye. It’s a dangerous habit, though. If there is some tiny object or irritant sitting on the surface of your eye, rubbing it with your balled fist is less likely to remove it than to press it more deeply into your eye.

Rather than rubbing your eyes when you feel an irritant try blinking repeatedly, using some over-the-counter eye drops to flush your eye, or splashing lukewarm water gently against your eyes. Any of those options are likely to be more effective and save you from a torn cornea or infection.

Using That Tube of Mascara Past Its Expiry Date

Eyelashes protect your eyes from tiny particles of dust, pollen, dirt, and debris. Ironically, the more they protect your eye from those potential irritants and germs, the dirtier your eyelashes get. If there are potentially harmful bacteria in the air around you, they may also be on your eyelashes and will certainly get into your mascara brush. Respect expiry dates on your makeup, and don’t use the same mascara or eyeliner for more than three months.

Forgetting Your Sunglasses

Sunglasses are much more than fashionable accessories. Sunlight contains two types of rays that reach our skin and eyes: long wave ultraviolet (UVA) and short wave ultraviolet (UVB). Both UVA and UVB can damage your eyes and even contribute to the development of cataracts and skin cancer on your eyelids.

Harmful glare can reflect from water and other surfaces to cause a condition called photokeratitis. Photokeratitis is like a sunburn on your corneas. It is painful and can cause sudden sun blindness. The solution is simple. Wear your sunglasses when you go out in the sun. Keep a spare pair in the car and bag.

Skipping Going to an Ophthalmologist in Calgary When There’s a Problem

Don’t ignore small symptoms affecting your eyes or eyesight. Many conditions leading to small and minor symptoms can be addressed effectively to ease your discomfort and anxiety. Ignoring those symptoms can lead to more significant issues and complications, including impaired vision. If something feels or looks off, get in touch with an ophthalmologist in Calgary.

Of course, you don’t want to ruin your eyesight. No one does. Preserving your eyesight and vision is important and easy. Following these simple steps will decrease the risk of eye-related infection and injury. If you’re concerned about any eye-related symptoms or would like to discuss your vision at any time, get in touch with an eye doctor in Calgary.