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Can My Child Wear Contact
Lenses For Sports?
One of the more common questions I receive
from parents about their athletic teenager is whether their son or
daughter is good candidate for contact lenses. Of course, many of these
parents are my age with memories (like mine) of the days of stopping the
basketball game with all the players and referees were on their knees
looking for a contact lens. But I am here to tell you that those days are
almost over – thank goodness. Those were the days of hard lenses (or gas
permeable lenses) which are inherently much more likely to eject out of
the eye, especially while playing sports.
Now soft lenses are overwhelmingly recommended for most patients,
especially those active in sports. Soft lenses are a great eyewear
solution for sports. In fact, they are usually a much better visual
correction than eyeglasses. Eyeglasses, especially sports safety eyewear
(which while offering great eye protection) does greatly reduce peripheral
vision while playing sports.
Also, sports that require a helmet, like football, make it almost
impossible to wear eyeglasses while playing. I have known many football
players that elect not to wear any correction at all while playing just
because of the impossibility (or comfort issues) of fitting their
eyeglasses inside their helmet.
Truly, wearing a correction while playing sports does greatly improve
performance; not only in clarity, but with eye-hand coordination. The
added performance-enhancing possibility with contact lenses is greatly
improved peripheral vision. Also, sweat on eyeglasses can be a great
visual nuisance.
Now, larger lenses are available for sports, like the Sunsoft Sports lens.
This lens was designed especially for sports and has a slightly larger
lens diameter than the average soft lens. Larger lenses typically can be
more stable on the eye and resist decentering or popping out after severe
eye movements involved with many sports. However, my experience has shown
me that even standard diameter lenses, like Vistakon’s AcuVue 2 or AcuVue
Advance lenses are extremely successful for sports. I usually only use the
larger diameter lenses for only those patients with physically, larger
eyes.
However, contact lenses are not recommended for all sports. For water
sports like swimming and diving, prescription swimming goggles are usually
a better solution. Although I have fit some competitive swimmers in Ciba
Vision’s Focus Dailies, the one-time-use lens that I wear. Chlorine gets
absorbed into any soft lens and causes stinging and burning, making it
impossible to wear more than once.
While practicing in Minneapolis, I had three patients on the University of
Minnesota Gofers baseball team. They were all in standard, disposable
contact lenses and we usually met every 3 months to ensure that their
vision was as clear as possible to allow them the best possible visual
sporting performance.
The Bottom Line: So, I always
give a resounding “Yes!” to parents with questions about recommending
contact lenses for youngsters in sports.
~RQ
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