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Melanie Cole (Host): Welcome to Expert Insights with the Carle Foundation Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. Joining me today is Dr. Saba Alniemi. She's a pediatric ophthalmologist at the Carle Foundation Hospital, and she's here to highlight eye safety and preventing eye injuries. Dr. Alniemi, I'm so glad you're here to join us today. Can you identify for us the most common activities that cause eye injuries and what you see most often?

Dr Saba Alniemi: Yeah, well actually the most common, injuries that I see are injuries that actually happen at home. So we definitely want to highlight those types of injuries, and discuss those further. So most commonly, Injuries that I see tend to happen in the kitchen while cooking, in the garage or yard, working outside or playing with toys in the home.

Melanie Cole (Host): Wow. You know, people don't think about our eyes as much when we're thinking about being at home. So let's delve into some of these, and I'd like to start with. What would be so common right now? And it could be chronic overuse or it could be a result of too much screen time, but in all of us working from home and our kids are online and we're staring at phones and computers and screens, is that doing anything damaging to our eyes?

Dr Saba Alniemi: Well, it certainly is actually. So screen time in general, can be dangerous, when Used too frequently. So whenever people are reading intensely on a screen, their phone, etcetera, the eyes themselves can actually dry out and can actually go into overdrive or over strain. And the way to sort of relieve those symptoms of blurred vision, headache, eye pain, throbbing, is to actually follow what's called the 20 20 20 rule. And that's where after 20 minutes of screen time, you want to look away for 20 seconds, take a break and kind of stare off into the distance at a generic 20 feet away.

That gives your eyes the ability to relax, reset themselves, and then you can return and resume continuing that screen time some more. However, In general, we really like to limit screen time for adults to ideally less than six hours a day, which can be hard when our lives are sort of, centered around, screen activity. And as you said, working from home is so common and popular these days. But if we can limit that, that's perfect for patients. And for children, we actually are even more strict and we, follow guidelines to limit screen time to two hours per day, ideally even less than that.

And that is because in addition to eye strain in children specifically, we are concerned about growing levels of nearsightedness or myopia in children. And this is actually an international epidemic where nearsightedness levels are becoming more common. And the theory is that it is because kids are so exposed to screens, screen time, digital learning, and that the eyes themselves go into overdrive and then eventually myopia results. So you wanna limit screen time for a variety of reasons.

Melanie Cole (Host): That's really great advice. Now, some people have talked about blue light glasses. Do they actually work when we're looking at all of these screens, and I know with kids we try and limit that screen time, but that has really changed now because screen time isn't the same as it used to be, right? It used to be TV or movies or that sort of thing, and now they have to be on their computers for homework and all of these things besides the 20 20 20 rule, which is awesome advice. Are there things like blue light glasses that work?

Dr Saba Alniemi: Well, blue light glasses are very popular these days, but when you look at the published scientific literature regarding blue light blocking lenses, there's actually not a lot of convincing evidence that they are more effective than placebo. They are very popular. It won't hurt to use them. If you feel like they help go for it, but there's really no indication to actually go out and buy them. What's best to do actually is if you're gonna be on the tablet anyway, if you're gonna be on the computer anyway, make sure you're in a well lit environment, ideally with some natural light adjacent to you. So if you can set up your home workspace or your child's home workspace close to a window with natural light, that's gonna be more advantage.

Also adjusting things like contrast on the screen if it's getting darker outside or if it is in the evening time and your environment isn't as well lit. Go ahead and adjust contrast settings so that things aren't as bright coming at you from the screen compared to your dark surroundings. You can also on many digital devices, especially if you're reading text, you can swap or reverse the color of text so that instead of black letters on a white background, you can reverse the setting so that you have white letters on a black background. That is a really good tip, for reducing eye strain and keeping eyes healthy for the long run.

Melanie Cole (Host): I'm gonna tell everybody I know about that tip and also the natural light. What great advice you just gave. So now you mentioned the kitchen. So moving on, where I'm gonna be for the next bunch of days without a break, what are some of those injuries that we need to look out for in the kitchen? We don't typically think about that?

Dr Saba Alniemi: So when you're making a meal, especially prepping certain vegetables, like onions, for example. it can release, potent odors. It can sting and burn the eyes. What you wanna do when you're prepping your meal from just early on, just chopping. Best to wear some protective eyewear so that those fumes aren't seeping into the eye, or at least you minimize that and then you definitely want to make sure you wash your hands before touching your face or touching anything that might later touch your eye. Because it's gonna really burn if you touch your eye in that setting.

Additionally when you're frying or sauteing vegetables or anything in hot oil, that's another very common injury, very hot particles of oil will, splatter at the face and potentially splatter right into your eye and cause a very focal localized burn that's quite painful and could potentially be dangerous. Ways to minimize that. Use a splash guard on your frying pan or whatever pot you're using. And then also protective eyewear, which I'm gonna say over and over again because that is the number one way to avoid any sort of eye injury in general, and definitely in the home as well.

And when you're cleaning up, your meal as well, let's say you're using like an oven cleaner or really any kind of chemical within the home, you wanna make sure you're not spraying any fumes towards the face. You're in a well-ventilated area so that you minimize the harmful effect of those fumes. And of course, protective eyewear. Again, while you're cleaning. Now, let's say you actually get something into your eye. What should you do? Immediately go to the sink and start rinsing, rinse using clean water.

If you have saline solution at home, which I highly recommend that you stock within the home, some type of an eye wash, start rinsing out the eye. and then after you've rinsed for a few minutes, kind of assess symptoms and what's going on. If you are having significant pain that is not subsiding. If you're having significant vision changes, if you have any sort of, additional injury where you're seeing bleeding from the eye or eyelids, or let's say that you hurt yourself in some way with a pair of kitchen shearers or a knife or something, you definitely want to stop, don't panic.

Secure some type of shield to the eye. A really easy one to find or make at home would be like, take a paper cup, cut off, half of it so that you can create a cup for the eye and just tape that down. You don't want to manipulate the eye, touch the eye, or push on the eye. Next step is to call your established eye provider, whether that's an optometrist or an ophthalmologist, and see if they can help triage your situation and what's going on. And they can either, help guide you to getting to an emergency department ASAP if that's what's indicated. Or they may have you come into the office and, get further evaluated.

Melanie Cole (Host): This is such great information. You're a really good educator doctor, so one of the things that I think about when I'm cleaning my house, and I've done it before, is a scratched cornea. Like you're down, you're dusting a table, and you start to stand up or look up and maybe there's just a pillow corner or a shade or something like that. Scratched corneas hurt so much. Can you just speak about that injury for me personally?

Dr Saba Alniemi: So corneal abrasions, incredibly common. Probably the most common acute eye injury that I see in clinic. So the cornea is packed with more nerve fiber endings than anywhere else in the body, and that is why a teeny tiny little scratch causes enormous amounts of pain. It's incredibly uncomfortable. You get lots of tearing associated with it, and it's just very frustrating to have. So let's say that happens within the home, what should you do? So, first of all, if you think that something got into the eye, like a piece of dust or debris, go ahead and try and rinse the eye out with some sterile saline solution.

Let a few minutes pass and see how you feel. if you're still in significant discomfort, you can pick up some preservative free artificial tears from any drugstore, any pharmacy, and apply those to the eye for comfort. And this applies to if you think it's a very minor scratch. However, if you're having significant redness, discharge, vision changes, or just really having trouble, dealing with your symptoms, next step is to call, your eye provider for further evaluation. You don't wanna self-treat at home. You don't use any eyedrops into the eye except for a preservative-free artificial tear.

Don't use any redness relieving drops, anything else over the counter except for a preservative-free tear and then get further evaluated. Sometimes we have to treat abrasions with additional things like topical antibiotics, certain ointments. The professionals will take it from there. But, if it's a very small minor scratch, sometimes you can get that to heal pretty quickly in a day or so at home with just some preservative-free artificial tears. But if symptoms persist or if it seems severe, don't hesitate. Just call your provider and see if they can get you seen.

Melanie Cole (Host): Wow. This is so educational and informative. Now what about recreational activities? For both our kids and ourselves. If we play tennis or golf or basketball or whatever it is, some of us just wanna go take a walk. But there are still things with our eyes, things that fly in and you know, leaves and whatever, debris, gardening. I love to garden, but I'm also always acutely aware of my eyes because I've scratched my cornea before. But while we're gardening and things sticks, and all of this, give us your best advice for when we're outdoors doing other stuff.

Dr Saba Alniemi: So really this boils down to, again, protective eyewear. And when you evaluate, what protective eyewear you wanna purchase. What you're looking for is something that's made from polycarbonate, polycarbonate lenses. Those are shatterproof unbreakable. So that is what you want on your face when doing any sort of physical activity or, even gardening or if you're taking a hike, for example, you're right, sticks, debris, branches can inadvertently whack you in the face, hit you in the eye, and then you're left with an injury. So polycarbonate lenses, which oftentimes if you're wearing prescription glasses, most glasses these days are made from polycarbonate lenses.

So you're covered already, but let's say that you have, just readers, etcetera, and you wanna buy something proper where you can keep it on your face throughout whatever activity you're doing, you can go ahead and shop online and look for polycarbonate, wraparound, protective eyewear and you will find good options for you. Now, for children if they're in prescription glasses and they are involved in contact sports, like let's say, basketball, soccer, football, anything very active, if the prescribed glasses don't have a good fit to the face, you do want to invest in prescription goggles.

And those are made athletes or active children, it's worth the investment because you know you have something safe and secure for your child's faith, and that you minimize ocular injury.

Melanie Cole (Host): So we could really talk all day because I have so many questions, but because we don't do that, I'd like to just ask you one more and then have you give us your best advice for preventing eye injuries. But one of the things that people don't realize, and I've seen adults at the beach, they're wearing sunglasses, but their kids are not. The sun can cause such a huge injury. I mean, it can affect your eyes for the rest of your life if you burn them. So can you tell us about sunglasses, if there's any specific little details and tips you want us to know about when we're choosing sunglasses and why it's so important that we wear them?

Dr Saba Alniemi: So, sunglasses definitely paramount for good ocular health. You're absolutely right, when you're shopping for sunglasses, you want to invest, ideally in something that is polarized. You'll get your best vision with the polarized lens, and then additionally, you absolutely, absolutely need UVA and UVB protection. Those have to be built into the lenses, themselves. So sunglasses whenever you're out in the sun is gonna help with overall ocular health, including, avoiding debris flying into the eye, avoiding ocular surface burns or irritation, minimizing cataract formation. Actually, a large driver of cataract formation is sun exposure and smoking.

But sun exposure is a huge one. So absolutely sunglasses all the time for kids and adults, everyone in the family. And I'm gonna add onto that and say not only sunglasses, but also a wide brimmed hat. You're gonna protect your ocular surface, but also sensitive, skin on your scalp, on your face, on your ears. Dermatologists will attest to that as well. We definitely want sun protection as it relates to sunglasses, a wide brim hat, and of course, sunblock.

Melanie Cole (Host): Now your best advice for just taking care of our eyes because it's so important and these things you've talked about today, doctor, have been things that people don't always think about. So you've given us really great information and a lot to think about. Wrap it up with your very best eye advice.

Dr Saba Alniemi: Well, I would definitely say, in terms of eye safety at home, monitor your surroundings, minimize risk by minimizing dangerous, activities or, certain items around the home. Minimize hazards and you'll have better eye health. And of course, as I've said it multiple times throughout this recording here, protective eye glasses.

Melanie Cole (Host): Such great information. Dr. Alniemi, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your incredible expertise. You've been so informative. Thank you again, and for more information and to get connected with one of our providers, you can visit carle.org or for a listing of Carle providers and to view Carl sponsored educational activities, visit our website at carleconnect.com. That concludes this. Expert insights with the Carle Foundation Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole.