Choose Sunglasses Wisely

One of the top benefits that LASIK vision correction provides is the opportunity to wear any type of sunglasses you want. Patients who achieve 20/20 vision after LASIK are usually excited to get rid of their expensive prescription sunglasses and start choosing a variety of fashionable sunglasses off-the-rack.

While most people know that it’s important to wear sunscreen with a high SPF to protect their skin from sun damage, few worry about UV protection in their sunglasses. The fact is that UV radiation can lead to serious eye problems, including cancer, cataracts, macular degeneration, painful sunburns of the cornea (photokeratitis) and damage to the eye lens and other parts of the eye. You should wear sunglasses any time you are outdoors – even in the shade, even in winter, even if you wear contact lenses that block UV rays.

At Charleston Cornea & Refractive Surgery, we not only help people achieve better vision through our advanced LASIK technologies in Charleston, we also want our patients to keep their eye health a priority after LASIK. When choosing sunglasses after LASIK, it’s important to look for UV protection details on the labels and choose shades that provide 100% UVA and UVB protection. The color and darkness of the lenses has no impact on the amount of protection. Frames that wrap around and cover the sides of the eyes are also beneficial in protecting your eyes from harmful rays. 

This subject is so important that scientists in Brazil have developed and installed a free self-serve sunglass UV testing kiosk in San Carlos so people can test how well their sunglasses block UV rays. In a test of 800 users of the kiosk, 20% found their sunglasses provided inadequate protection. If you are unsure about your own sunglasses, talk to your optician, optometrist or ophthalmologist or invest in a new pair of sunglasses that meet the right requirements.

To find out if you might benefit from LASIK and have the opportunity to choose any sunglasses you want, take the free online LASIK Self-Evaluation at charlestoncornea.com. Then call Dr. O'Day at 843-856-5275 to schedule your free LASIK Consultation.