Eye protection is not the sexiest of subjects but, boy, if you have damage to your eye, you sure care about it, and you should care about it with woodworking because there's a lot of things that can happen with projectiles that can come into your eyes. 

I learned the hard way years ago when I had some damage to my right eye from metalworking. Even though I was wearing safety glasses at the time, my eye was still damaged because I got a metal splinter on my finger and wiped my eye. So even wearing some kind of a protection isn't necessarily going to save you, but you should wear as much protection as is comfortable for you and works for you. So, what are the alternatives?

Wide range of options
There are a lot of different kinds of eye protection.  Here in the northeast, we recently had an eclipse, so we were wearing eclipse glasses. So, it's not just projectiles that you might protection. Think of bright lights from welding and blacksmithing. 

In woodworking, we’re typically more concerned about projectiles. For maximum protection, you can go with a face shield. Some full face shields are more form fitting and even connected with a breathing apparatus so that it works for filtering the air as well as protecting your eyes. Those are especially good for folks that have a beard and can't seal up, really well with most dustmasks.

Probably the first kinds of safety glasses I ever wore was some clear rubber googgles I wore when I was a kid in school science class. They were uncomfortable, and they fogged up, but they did protect my eyes and they also had side protection. 

They also would work for most people if they had regular glasses that they could wear the goggles over their glasses. Remember, not all regular glasses are adequate to double as safety glasses. 

The first real professional safety glasses that I bought I called Buddy Holly glasses because they, they looked like the kind of glasses that the old rock star Buddy Holly wore. You know the kind, with dark plastic frames. But these also had side shields and were not really a fashion statement, but they, they were pretty good protection. 

Style and safety
Today safety glasses have gotten a little bit more stylish, all swoopy and form fitting, sometimes with adjustable ear pieces. They are also frequently a lot more comfortable while offering very good, certified protection and often at very low cost. Look for ones that offer good side protection, too.

One thing to watch out for with the more form-fitting options is that there is ventilation. Glasses can be too form fitting and then fog up easily. There are things you can do and apply to glasses that help prevent fogging, but the best solution is better ventilation.

Vision correcting
One of the problems I have is that I now wear bifocals, but if you're working in certain situations, the bifocals are in the wrong place. 

For example, if I'm working underneath something like underneath a car or something like that, I want to look up, and the bifocals are on the bottom, so you can't focus. I found some bifocal safety glasses designed for firearms shooters that have the bifocal on the top, so you can focus looking through the top of the lenses.

If you use bifocals or want to put a reader magnification on your safety glasses, you can get stick-on magnifiers that adhere to the safety glasses. You can also order prescription safety glasses, including bifocal or progressive lenses from your optometrist.

My choice
Now that I have to wear prescription glasses, I tried to get by wearing them in the shop in place of safety glasses. But I just wasn’t comfortable with the protection, especially on the sides. So, I decided the last time I saw the eye doctor that I wanted to get, specialty glasses that I could use in the shop. 

I chose a design that has my same prescription and are also tinted yellow so that they cut the blue light on computer screens, such as the one I use to run the CNC machine. The yellow tine also cuts through fog and smoke if I'm outside, so I can use these as shooting glasses, as well as working in the shop. 

They work really well and I think they're really worth the effort and worth the price because spending a couple $100 extra on some prescription safety glasses, is a lot better investment than having to spend that kind of money or more on an eye surgeon with uncertain results.