Laser protective eyewear: A critique

The eye is quite sensitive to the uniqueness of laser beams. Minute quantities of steady-beam or pulsed lasers can cause permanent damage to ocular components. Management of eye protection for laser users in medical or other laser environments requires the use of basic scientific principles to control this ocular hazard. Knowledge of the characteristics of the laser or lasers at hand is vital as is the awareness of corneal and retinal damage thresholds. Selection of protective devices without evaluating these data can result in failure to obtain maximum luminous transmission and thus handicap the user with excessive optical density. Because many laser manufacturers supply limited eyewear information with their products, often the laser user is not well informed on this subject but merely uses the devices supplied with the laser unit. For example, colored goggles are routinely shipped with Nd:YAG lasers although clear glass spectacles are available. Similarly, CO2 protection often consists of colored plastic goggles although any clear eyewear material absorbs CO2 wavelengths. Comfort and visibility are thusly often sacrificed as well as loss of peripheral vision. In addition, the availability of corrective lenses in lightweight spectacles is often not presented to the inexperienced user.