I’m sure that there used to be, but I noticed last night at Walgreens that they had this exact one for sale. Wouldn’t most of the things that an eyepatch would have helped in pirate times or whatever have some sort of modern medical counterpart that works better?
I know two people who wear eye patches, but I don’t have the nerve to ask what trauma they ahd. In short, I WAG that the insurance co will not pay for what they’d deem cosmetic…just like that anaesthetic (sp?) for colonscopies. (Yeah, they’ll really stick it to ya in the end! 
)
I have known some people who have had to wear patches over their eye after surgery. I’m not talking bandages to guard against infection, but coverings over the eye to keep it away from light. Also, weren’t patches once used as a treatment for “lazy eye”? I seem to remember one of my grade-school classmates wearing an eye patch to force him to use one eye instead of the other.
Yes, they are used to help correct “lazy eye”, but are only worn for a few hours at a time in that case. The rest of the time corrective glasses are usually worn.
A friend of mine suffered extensive facial trauma, especially to one eye. Reconstruction has restored it somewhat, but the eye is minimally functional. So he wears an eyepatch, which makes him look intriguing rather than scary to most people.
He is very popular on “talk like a pirate” day.
I don’t know - if God forbid I had a legitimate reason to wear an eyepatch, I’d wear one. Eyepatches are cool.
Also, kids being treated for amblyopia/lazy eye these days usually have disposable adhesive patches, not the “pirate patch”. Best of all, the patches now come with cool patterns and designs, as well as in the neutral/Band-aid color. Last year, a little girl at the preschool where I work was being treated for this, and she took great care to pick out the patch she thought “matched” her outfit best each morning
I was diagnosed w/ “iritis” several years ago. It caused a sharp pain when I looked at a bright light, so I had to wear a patch for a few days, until the med. took effect. I thought it was a big PITA.
My left eye is non-functional, and tends to “wander” on its own. If I keep both eyes open the mottled gray that I see in my left eye tends to overlay the vision in my right eye, making that worse.
When I want to see better I cover my left eye. If any of you wear contact lenses, take one out. Don’t you see better with the bad one closed? It’s a question of signal-to-noise ratio. You decrease the signal by a few percent, but you cut the noise by a much larger proportion.
I don’t wear a patch, but could see better if I did, and honestly, it would probably look better than me walking around with one eye closed or covered with my hand.
Attorney and author Andrew Vachss was hit in the eye with an exploding firecracker back before the days of reconstructive surgery. He still wears an eyepatch.
I saw a show that gave a great hypothesis for why pirates used to wear patches. It was because of their need to go into the dark space below deck (to get cannon balls, arrr matey). They’d move the patch over to the “daylight” eye and could see better in the dark with the acclimated eye. Then they’d switch it back when they were up in daylight again.
A number of years ago, I had an episode of Bell’s Palsy, which is a paralysis affecting one side of my face. Besides the treatment for it, my doctor advised me to wear an eyepatch over that eye, because the paralysis caused it to blink much less frequently than normal, and the eyepatch would keep the dust out. I did remove the eyepatch when driving (and sleeping), but otherwise it was very helpful.
You know how fashion tends to rebel against practicality? As in the more likely you are to trip, the better? High heels and low, baggy pants increase the chance of tripping. Could eye patches be the next fashion trend?
That was a Mythbusters episode! I came in here to post this very thing.
Aaaarrr!
They are a fashion trend in Japan, among a certain subset of goths.
And to be totally honest part of my motivation for starting this thread was to find out if there was a good reason I could start.
“Yeah, sorry boss, but I have to wear it. Yeah, the docs said I have Pirata Oculus Morbus. Seems like it’s going around.”
Several years ago I ran into a utility pole face-first while bicycling. I had plastic surgery to fix my face, and immediately after I looked like Frankenstein’s monster – literally. BIG ugly stitches and Green Skin and all sorts of bruising. I wore an eyepatch at first, then switched (when I could) to Terminator-cool mirror shades.
I know one guy who has a magnetic eyepatch. He had little studs implanted in his eyebrow, lower portions of the eyesocket, and the side of the nose. The patch has little neodium magnets that grab the studs. He must have ten or more different patches too.
Most people who have lost an eye wear a glass eye in its place. For some, though, the glassie is really uncomfortable :smack: , and the patch is more practical.
I got a scratched cornea a few years ago. Damn that hurts like nothing else. Light and even sound are killer. I bought an eye patch so that I could actually move around a little during the week or so it took to heal enough so that I could tolerate light.