Keep Your Eyes on the Prize: Fun in the Sun
What the Best Eyewear is to Prevent Ocular Damage from the Sun from Eric F. Bernstein, M.D., M.S.E.
While it is lovely to enjoy spending time outdoors, you need to protect yourself from the harmful rays from the sun. People’s first line of defense is to grab the nearest SPF-based product and apply it to your skin before heading outside, however we do not take as much caution to sun-protection for our eyes. Most people simply throw on the coolest pair of sunglasses they own and walk out the door—which is where we have all gone wrong.
The sun can (and will) cause damage to our eyes, especially when we are not wearing the proper lenses that prevent the harmful ultraviolet rays from damaging our sight. So it’s important to protect our eyes because the sun’s rays can be equally as damaging to our ocular health as it is to our skin.
According to Dr. Eric F. Bernstein, the UV and other rays can increase our risk of eye disease, including cataracts, retina damage, and cancer. “But not just any shades will do,” stated Dr. Eric Bernstein, a Philadelphia-area dermatologist and photobiologist who studies the effects of light on our tissues, both sunlight and laser light.
“The only tissues to ‘see’ the light are our skin and our eyes,” said Bernstein in a press release. “My entire career, in the office and in the laboratory, I have studied the effect of sunlight and laser light on our tissues, while administering thousands of skin laser treatments. I’m a photobiologist who is passionate about the biological effects of light.”
Dr. Bernstein explains that most plastic lenses, like window tint/film for our cars, block UV light, as do coated glass lenses, but he says brown lenses offer the best protection – blocking both UV and visible purple, blue and green light. The most energetic visible wavelengths to reach the retina of the eye are violet and blue light, right next to the ultraviolet spectrum.
“This blue light can hurt the focal part of our eye and contribute to macular degeneration. The macula is the main focal point of our retina, and the most likely part of our retina to be damaged by the sun. Our body deposits vitamin-A like compounds there to help protect it. We can help protect our retinas by wearing the right colored sunglasses – BROWN – that block violet, blue and green light. If your lenses are gray, blue, or green, you’re letting those short wavelengths bombard your retina; and they are doing so even more because wearing sunglasses dilates our pupils and lets more light in,” said Dr. Bernstein.
For another layer of protection, don a hat, which decreases the direct exposure to sunlight and its UV rays. “Wide-brimmed hats provide a shield over the tops of your eyes and eyelids and the sides of your face. In addition, they prevent sunlight behind, above and on the side reflecting into our eyes off the backside of our sunglass lenses,” added Dr. Bernstein.
When not in the sun, many of us are working in front of the glare of a computer for hours. He advises wearing computer glasses which are specifically designed to protect us from blue light on the screen and reduce eye strain. “There are also coatings on regular glasses to both reflect and absorb purple/blue light. I prefer the coatings that absorb blue light (Crizal®), because light behind us won’t reflect off absorptive coatings and enter our eyes.”
ABOUT ERIC F. BERNSTEIN, M.D.
Eric F. Bernstein, M.D., M.S.E. is a world leader in dermatologic laser surgery. He served as the President of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS), the world's premiere professional organization representing medical laser and energy-based applications, and is a director of the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS). Dr. Bernstein is the founder and director of Main Line Center for Laser Surgery on the Main Line outside of Philadelphia and is currently clinical professor of dermatology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Bernstein holds 14 U.S patents, numerous international patents, and has authored over 100 scientific publications.