Yes, your eyeballs can get sunburned too
IT’S not just your skin that can suffer in the sun. Actress Busy Philipps learned that the hard way last week when light exposure damaged her eyes: “[The doctor] was literally like, ‘You sunburned your eyes,’ ” the “Freaks and Geeks” star said on her podcast, “We’re No Doctors.”
The painful injury, known as photokeratitis, was probably the result of too much ultraviolet light during a recent photo shoot, her doctor told her.
“It felt like shards of glass in my eyes,” the Los Angeles resident said on the podcast, adding that she probably wasn’t blinking as much during the three-hour shoot, so her eyes were especially dry and prone to the harmful rays.
Dr. Avnish Deobhakta, a retina surgeon at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, says this type of burn on the surface of the cornea is surprisingly common in very strong sunlight, and, indeed, incredibly painful: “Your cornea is really, really sensitive,” Deobhakta says.
Luckily for Philipps and others with photokeratitis, the damage is temporary — not more than three to five days — as long as the patient sees their ophthalmologist about getting eye drops and stays out of the sun. Sunglasses are the best way to prevent eye damage. “The cornea has a great healing capacity,” Deobhakta says. “But the only real way to not have this happen is to wear UV-protective sunglasses.”
Seek out glasses that protect against both UVA and UVB rays, which can harm the skin and eyes differently. Deobhakta adds that while polarized sunglasses are great for days spent on the water or in the snow, whenever the sun is reflecting off the ground into your eyes, UV protection should be a top priority.
And, it should go without saying, but don’t stare at the sun for an extended period of time — and definitely don’t look at it during an eclipse, since it can still cause retina damage and permanent blind spots.
“If you want to look at the sun,” Deobhakta says, “don’t.”