SUMMER TIME IS EYE INJURY SEASON

Today in the office I saw 6 eye injuries two of them extremely serious. All could have been prevented by some common sense and protective eye wear. If you use power tools, lawn mowers, weed eaters, play racquet sports, or summer sports (baseball, softball, target shoot with archery or guns, etc, etc) wear eye protection.

ALSO EVERY OPHTHALMOLOGIST HATES FIRECRACKER EYE INJURIES.  Bottle rockets are the worse, cherry bombs/M-80 and sparklers in the eye are next.

Parents assume some control over your childs use or misuse of fireworks.

JCH MD

[JadeAmi]

Speaking of eye injury, if it's possible can you give me some advice?
I have this brown line running across both my eyes. It's the exact same shape of my eyes when i'm squinting and i'm on the ocean alot with bright sun light as i live in the caribbean. I was wondering if it was a tan line at first but i thought that was odd so i blamed it on lack of sleep. But i've been sleeping alot more lately it still hasn't gotten better. I could say i've had for almost 2 years now and it's worst. It also burns and itches sometimes. Show i be concern? Should i go see a doctor? I'm afraid there are not official eye doctors on my island and they only time there is one is in november for a month and so many people book i never bothered to go before. Please let me know how serious this is?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

I note on your picture that you are dark skinned. Increased pigmentation in the white of the eye is normal for dark/black skinned individuals and in those with heavy sun exposure its even more common.

Pigment in the skin protects against skin cancer so skin and eye external melanomas are very rare at your age.

If it changes you might see an ophthalmologist but against its most likely a normal finding.

I've visited the lovely islands where you live and very much enjoyed the scenary and meeting its gracious people.

JCH MD