It’s a burn that is not pleasant: 6 to 24 hours after skiing, whether the weather has been very nice or not, you feel a tingling sensation in the eye, grains of sand; the eye is red, the tears inexhaustible and above all, it is impossible to look at the light: it is too painful. If all these signs appear impressive, they do not put the future of the vision at stake. They correspond to a burn by ultraviolet rays of part of the outer layer of the eye, the cornea. Eye patches, a few drops of antiseptic eye drops and ophthalmic ointment take care of it in a few days. A word of advice: above all, no anesthetic eye drops. It is also necessary to wait 4 or 5 days before putting the contact lenses back.

This incident is therefore not too serious in itself, except that the few days that the healing requires must pass in darkness. Needless to say, it is no longer possible to step outside during ski week.

In practice, you have to protect yourself and wear glasses.

Conclusion: you have to protect yourself and wear glasses in good weather of course, but also in overcast weather because the ultraviolet rays pass through the cloud layer very well.

It remains to be seen which glasses: the black ones protect against glare, light but not necessarily ultraviolet rays. So to protect yourself effectively, you have to choose tinted glasses, of course, but above all that filter UV rays. The ideal for skiing are the goggles which, if they do not give the most becoming tan, protect perfectly. They are highly recommended for children. Children who must be particularly protected because we are talking more and more about sun capital for the eyes.

A capital that should not be started too much from an early age.

Doctor Jean-Francois Lemoine

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