Prevent eye injuries, wear protective gear

When your kids are out on the field or on the court playing sports, you want to do everything you can to make sure they don't get hurt.

That means if they have to wear protective gear, you get it for them. But there's one part of the body parents seem to be forgetting about.

Vincent Ford has spent a lot of time seeing an eye doctor. 15 years ago he suffered a serious eye injury while competing in a full contact martial arts tournament.

"While I was fighting my opponent's finger came through the bars and into my eye… I didn't think to put on safety goggles so that resulted in a scratch on my cornea and a detached retina."

Dr. Brett Katzen with the Katzen Eye Group performed surgery to repair the damage.

He says he sees a lot of people, especially athletes getting hurt because they forget to protect their eyes

Dr. Katzen says, "In sports with balls, especially lacrosse, racquetball, hockey, without eye protection you put yourself at significant risk of getting hit in the eye that can cause blinding disease and unfortunately once it happens it's unrepairable.”

If your kid plays in any kind of contact sport, it's a good idea to get protective eyewear.

Dr. Katzen says they're easy to find. "Most sporting goods store now have protective eyewear for specific sports it's become pretty much the standard to wear eye protection due to the risk and injuries that happen."

And it's pretty much up to the parents to make sure their kids eyes are protected.

Dr. Katzen says, "It's more their responsibility to get their kids into some protective eyewear for their sports because kids are often not going to think about it or they're going to think it's not cool.”