How Contact Lenses Can Benefit a Sports Person – Lenspick

Imagine MS Dhoni playing a sixer with thick-rimmed glasses; or Usian Bolt finishing an excellent run wearing a rimless one! No matter how hard we try, and even if we are really imaginative people, the above scenes would appear to be strange. Barring a few exceptions, it is almost impossible to imagine a sportsman with glasses. Of course it is not only about the look. Sportsmen wearing contact lenses enjoy a lot of advantages, the primary one among them being performance enhancement. Lets have a look at how:

Contact Lenses and Performance Enhancement

• They offer better peripheral vision, i.e. eyes can capture a wider view than when wearing glasses. Needless to say, this is crucial in most sporting activities
• Regardless of the weather and circumstances, contact lenses offer more clarity than glasses. They do not get splattered or fog up like glasses do. What would happen if Serena Williams were playing wearing a glass which has become white due to the cold weather of England? You know the answer!
• Playing sports has hazards. There are chances of getting injured, falling and the like. Glasses, in such situations, are no less than a menace! They could break and cause serious damage to the eyes. Contact lenses are far safer in this regard.
• Contact lenses offer a wider view. They do not have frames that restrict vision and hence you are in a better position to respond to your surroundings from a wide angle. Starting from objects at your feet to the sides and front, you are ready to react to challenges that are a part of sports.
• For sports such a cricket or hockey which require players to wear headgear, contact lenses are a boon because they do not interfere with the setting and comfort of the headgear. Hence it ensures safety and at the same time makes you comfortable when you play!
• Last, but certainly not least, contact lenses provide a far more stable vision. There is no fear of movement or falling down the nose when you are engaging in sporting activities that require physical exertion and activities. Imagine if you are about to score a goal, you have dribbled past ten opponents, and just at the nick of time, your glasses decide to fall off causing your vision to blur. Definitely not a desirable situation!

Together with the various advantages, contact lenses for sports also offer a lot of options with regard to the types available. You can choose the lens that will suit you best from a wide variety.

Types of Contact lenses

• Soft silicone: These are more popular, primarily because they are more comfortable and less pricey. For people who are wearing lenses for the first time, soft lenses are easier to wear and get used to. It fits in perfectly and does not feel like there is a foreign substance in the eyes.
• Hard Plastic: Also known as rigid lens, these are more expensive and also take more time to adjust and. You would require more time to get uses to a hard rigid substance that has been inserted in your eyes.
• Disposable lenses: All lenses are disposable, regardless of the material they are made of. What differs is the time of disposal. While some sports contact lenses are daily disposable, some can be disposed after a month of regular use. It is usually more convenient to go for daily disposable Bausch and lomb contact lenses because they can be discarded at the end of the day, so the added worry of storing the lens in the solution can be forgotten! For busy sportsmen, this is no doubt a blessing.
• Rigid Gas Perm Lenses: These are prescribed by doctors for athletes who have special conditions like astigmatism. The Corneal and Contact Lense society recommends that RGP lenses are the best to correct astigmatism.
• Hybrid Lenses: This is a fusion between regular soft lenses and RGP lenses. The centre is hard RGP while the outer ring is soft silicone. This can help to correct astigmatism as well as provide greater oxygen transmission to the eyes, which is very important to maintain a healthy eye!

Factors to consider when choosing contact lens

1. The playing environment is crucial- whether its an individual or a team sport also falls in this category.
2. The visual characteristics of the sport play a vital role. If it demands more physical exertion and has higher risks of injury, the lenses would have to be specialised.
3. The athlete’s specific physiological requirements are to be met. This is an important factor to consider, so a doctor must be consulted before choosing the kind of lens.
4. More often than not, the athlete’s specific playing position also dictates the kind of lens one can wear.
5. Environmental factors such as more exposure to UV radiation, dust and the like also play a significant part in the choice.

Consultation with a physician is imperative in the process. Together with the considerations listed above, there are individual specifications that need to be taken into account. Sometimes, the lens are customised for the specific sporting activity, so it can’t be used otherwise.

True that its an uphill task to satisfy all these considerations at once. It is best to make an informed decision and try to choose contact lenses for sports players that fits most of the requirements.