Athletes with visual limitations usually need to wear contacts or glasses while they are actively participating in sports, but this is not always a completely satisfying, effective, or convenient solution. Depending on how much of a prescription you have, being active without your glasses or contacts might limit you from achieving your best performance. Under certain circumstances, you might not be able to compete at all. This is the reason why so many professional and recreational athletes have tried to improve their vision with glasses or contact lenses. They often assume that using contacts will make it easier to play sports – and indeed, this is true to a certain extent. The reality is that anyone who enjoys playing sports or has an active lifestyle will eventually lose or break their eyeglasses or have contact lens related visual difficulties. This is especially true with contact sports like football or basketball and water sports such a swimming, surfing, or scuba diving.
The Trouble with Glasses and Contacts
If you’ve ever worn contacts, you already know how dry and irritated your eyes can get if you are wearing them while you are active – especially outdoors. Outdoor sports expose you to wind, dust and dirt that only worsen the dry, sandy, or gritty feeling that most contact lens users must struggle with on a regular basis. It’s also not uncommon for a contact lens to shift (or even be lost completely) during sports activities. For this reason, contact lenses are probably not the best solution available today for your active lifestyle. If you’re an athlete who’s already tried playing sports in glasses or contacts and have been frustrated by their limitations, LASIK just might be your best option to see (and be) your best at what you do.
Risk of Eye Injury
What about the risk of eye injuries for athletes and other active individuals? Most eye doctors would agree that athletes with better visual function after a successful LASIK laser vision correction procedure can function more effectively (and probably more safely) because of their increased clarity of vision. These visual improvements result in part because of the removal of the artificial lens surfaces associated with both glasses and contacts. These surfaces inevitably become coated with protein deposits, oils, dust, and other debris and reduce the quality of your vision as a result. You can get rid of these issues and also reduce or eliminate your need for glasses or contacts with LASIK.
Famous Athletes who had LASIK
Excellent vision is especially important for US military personnel, like pilots, who were approved to have LASIK well over a decade ago. These days, serious complications from LASIK eye surgery are quite rare and almost always avoidable by using today’s advanced laser technology. LeBron James and Tiger Woods are just two of the many famous athletes that have had LASIK surgery to perform at their highest level in their respective sports. In fact, Tiger Woods was “legally blind” without his glasses prior to his LASIK procedure and some would say that his golf game had actually improved as a result of the increased visual clarity he has achieved from LASIK.
What You Can Expect with LASIK
There are certain reasonable precautions that athletes should follow after LASIK. Protecting the eyes during the early healing process is very important after the LASIK procedure. Athletes are advised to minimize strenuous sports activities for a reasonable period of time (usually around a week or so) after their LASIK or PRK procedures. It is usually recommended that a limited amount of training or competing be performed during the early healing process, but this varies widely depending on the specific activity involved and the actual procedure that was performed.
If an athlete follows their eye doctor’s instructions for proper post-LASIK care, he or she will likely avoid virtually all of the risks of significant complications after LASIK surgery. While it may seem like an inconvenience to stop competing for a short time after LASIK, the true pay-offs of being “appliance-free” without the burden of glasses or contacts is something that you can enjoy for a lifetime!
Laser Vision Correction technology has come a long way since its introduction in North America nearly 25 years ago. If you are an active individual in the Las Vegas or Reno area and are interested in learning about the latest all-laser LASIK vision correction from Nevada’s most experienced and specialized LASIK provider, then you should contact LASIK of Nevada today. When you visit LASIK of Nevada, you will get a free consultation and you’ll be working with top doctors who use their top experience and top technology to get you back in the game as safely and quickly as possible.