Enhance Sports Performance With Contact Lenses

Contact lenses are highly recommended for playing any sports over wearing glasses, for they typically have little to no risk of falling out or breaking during activity.  Whether you’re a casual gym goer, weekend sports warrior or elite athlete, good vision is essential to ensure peak performance.

What are some benefits of wearing contact lenses whilst playing sports? 

Contact lenses have a number of benefits and advantages over spectacles:

• Less chance of injury: frames or lenses may break, especially during contact sports, which increases your risk of eye or facial injuries.
• Greater peripheral vision: spectacles limit peripheral vision whereas contact lenses provide a greater field of vision without distortion. You will be able to view more of your surroundings and react faster to objects coming towards you and to other players around you.
• No fogging or splatter: unlike glasses, contact lenses won’t fog up, fall off, be coated in rain or mud making them ideal for sports.
• Stable vision: when wearing spectacles, frames often move around on your face particularly when running. They may also slide down your nose when you sweat or if you are constantly looking down and may even fall off. Aside from being annoying, movement of your spectacles will also affect your vision. These issues are non-existent with contact lenses.
• Better depth perception: as contact lenses allow a more stable vision, depth perception improves. This can assist with improving hand/eye coordination.
• No reflections: you may experience reflections off the lens surface of your spectacles that can affect vision and be off putting during sports.
• Compatibility with other equipment: some sports require headgear or goggles and can be difficult to wear with spectacles. Contact lenses will make them more comfortable to wear and may provide a better fit.
• UV protection: most contact lenses offer UV blocking technology built into the lens providing added protection
• Disposable: lost or damaged glasses are expensive to replace whereas disposable contact lenses can be thrown away. Daily contact lenses are particularly convenient for sport as a fresh pair is used daily.

What are some of the types of contact lenses I can wear for sports?

There are plenty of different types of contact lenses on the market and your optometrist can help you find the most suitable contact lenses for you specifically for sports.  Many optometrists will recommend using daily disposable contacts because they are convenient and easy to use due to their daily replacement schedule. There are however, plenty of other options such as fortnightly, monthly and extended contact lenses, each with their own unique benefits.

I’m interested in getting contact lenses, what do I do now?

Great! The first thing to do is to book an appointment with your optometrist to assess your suitability. Your optometrist will discuss your requirements with you, assess your suitability and then trial some contact lenses on you. A follow up appointment is required to ensure that the contact lenses are fitting correctly on your eyes. As each brand of contact lenses fits differently, it is important to ensure that you stick to the brand that your optometrist has fitted you for. Should you find that your contact lenses are uncomfortable or not providing you with great vision, make sure you contact your optometrist. They will work with you to find the perfect contact lens for you. With the help of your optometrist, you will be able to find contact lenses to suit your sporting needs and help you perform to the best of your abilities on the track, in the field, in the water, and everywhere else!