How Do I Protect Myself from Facial Sports Injuries? What you need to know about common facial sports injuries.

If you play sports, you need to know how to protect yourself from injuries to your face and head. Facial sports injuries can be painful, but they can also be disfiguring and even deadly. Your ear, nose and throat specialist at West Coast Ear, Nose and Throat in Simi Valley, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, and Camarillo, CA wants you to know about common facial sports injuries and how to prevent them.

Facial fractures are one type of facial sports injury and are diagnosed by x-rays and a clinical evaluation by your Simi Valley, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, and Camarillo ENT. You might have a facial fracture if you have:

• Nosebleeds
• Blurred or double vision
• Changes in your teeth or inability to close your mouth correctly
• Numbness or pain in your lips, cheeks or face
• Bruising and swelling

Sometimes injury to the soft tissue of your face can be treated at home with ice packs and over-the-counter pain medications. Your Simi Valley, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, and Camarillo professional at West Coast Ear, Nose and Throat wants you to come in for an evaluation if your soft tissue injury involves:

• Loss of facial movement
• Bleeding that won’t stop
• Very deep cuts in your skin
• A change in your vision
• Breathing or swallowing problems
• Obvious facial deformity

The caring Simi Valley, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, and Camarillo ENT professionals want you to know how to prevent facial injuries. Make sure you wear protective equipment including:

• Padding and helmets for football, rollerblading and bicycling
• Head and mouthguards for baseball
• Goggles for racquetball
• Ear protection for wrestling

You should also pad goal posts and other hard surfaces if possible and make sure your sports equipment works well. Remember to always warm up and stretch before any intense exercise. If you are the parent of a child, be sure your child has adult supervision during a sporting activity.

It’s great to be active, but remember to protect yourself and your face against injury. If you do experience an injury to your face or head, don’t wait for treatment. Come see an expert at West Coast Ear, Nose and Throat with four locations to serve you in Camarillo, Simi Valley, Oxnard and Thousand Oaks, CA. Call today and play it safe!