Question: If someone is blind in one eye, should they wear glasses for protection to the good eye? About a year ago my daughter was seen by her opthalomologist and while taking a family history the doctor was adamant that I should be wearing glasses to protect my good eye. Then just last week I was talking with another VHL patient who has lost the vision in one of her eyes and she asked me why I didn’t wear glasses. She wears glasses to protect her good remaining eye.

If we should be wearing glasses, I wonder how many people are just ignorant like me and didn’t even think about that as being important. My own Doctor kind of shrugged it off as not being important so I never followed through on it. What’s the concensus on this issue with the experts?
-- Donna B., Oregon

Response: We polled our Medical Advisors, and everyone agrees that people with only one eye should wear glasses for protection.

“We strongly recommend that all patients who have only a single eye that is providing functional vision should use eye protection (glasses) at all times. We have all seen cases in which people have had freak accidents which resulted in blinding of their remaining eye. Polycarbonate lenses offer the best protection at a reasonable price. I make this one of my “checklist items” for all of my monocular patients.” – Michael B. Gorin, M.D., Ophthalmology and vision sciences, University of California, Los Angeles

“The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends and I quote ‘Patients who are functionally monocular should wear proper protective eyewear full time, even if they do not require corrective lenses.’” – Arun Singh, M.D., Ophthalmology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio.

As printed in the VHL Family Forum 16:3, September 2008. For permission to reprint, please contact VHL Family Alliance, editor@vhl.org.