Can You Wear Glasses With A Football Helmet?

Shop Prescription Glasses for Football

According to the American Family Physician, there are more than 40,000 sports-induced eye injuries in the United States every year. An estimated 90% of these injuries can be prevented. Although baseball and basketball are considered the most high-risk games as far as eye injuries are concerned, football is also highly risky. This is because it involves aggressive physical contact.

Wearing your regular prescription glasses while playing football is not a good idea as they are not designed for impact. Hard hits are likely to push the helmet against the temples of the glasses, which may break them, leading to injuries. For any sporty person, one of the greatest frustrations is being unable to participate in a sport due to something beyond their control like vision.

In this post, we explore on eye injuries that can result from wearing glasses with your football helmet as well as solutions for football players with eye problems.

Common eye injuries during sports

Whether it is dust or debris blown by the wind, mud, the ball, stray elbows or fingers, football players have to protect their eyes from the following eye injuries:

• Penetrating eye injuries:

  On contact with the ball or aggressive face-to-face contact with fellow players, the eyeglasses could shatter, thus causing penetrating injuries. Eye penetration could result in permanent loss of vision depending on the location of the injury and extent of penetration.

• Blunt eye trauma:

  This type of injury happens when there is a sudden forceful impact on the brow or eye. Blunt eye trauma can either be minor or severe. Minor blunt injuries could result in a black eye while severe impact could result in a detached retina, a shattered eyeball, or fracturing of the bones around the eyeball. The latter is also known as an orbital blowout fracture.

• Corneal Abrasion:

  when the outer surface of the eye is scratched, this is referred to as corneal abrasion. It could occur if debris blows into the eyes.

Apart from the mentioned eye injuries, regular prescription glasses are uncomfortable to wear as they jostle around as you play and are quite expensive should they break. Also, football helmets are not designed to fit over prescription glasses.

Protecting yourself from eye injuries while playing football

A while back, athletes seldom wore eyewear specially designed for eye protection during sports. Today, this kind of eyewear is available to almost everyone, whether they play in a rec league or the NFL. There is a wide variety of plastic or shatterproof lenses that should be worn in the field.

Choosing the right kind of eyewear for football

The right kind of sports eyewear minimizes the risk of injuries and also enhances the athletes vision. Experts recommend lenses made of poly-carbonate as it is resistant to impact. These types of lenses also have a scratch-resistant coating which helps to prevent them from getting damaged.

Most football sports glasses are designed to accommodate prescription as well as nonprescription lenses. You need to choose a frame with a rubber padding that cushions the frame and protects the area where the eyewear comes into contact with the nose area and the temple. Also, choose a frame that will fit perfectly inside the helmet.

Football Sports Glasses vs Contact Lenses

Ophthalmologists recommend wearing contact lenses for any type of sport as they provide you with better peripheral vision compared with eyeglasses. You will also have an unobstructed view of the field as there are no frames to distort or block your view. However, contact lenses do not protect your eyes in the same way football sports glasses do from trauma. 

If you normally wear prescription eyeglasses, you should inform your optometrist if you engage in any type of sport. An ophthalmologist is better placed to advice you on what kind of sports eyewear will fit comfortably and securely during the sport. If you wish to buy eyewear for recreational use, feel free to browse through the different types of prescription football sports glasses on Goggles N More. Compared to contact lenses, sports eyewear is better as it protects your eyes from dust, debris, or getting poked by other players.

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