Save Your Eyes: Learn How to Properly Uncork Champagne

Popping champagne and wine bottles on new year's is a long-standing tradition, but doctors with the American Academy of Ophthalmology warn that flying corks can cause serious eye injury.

Uncorking a bottle improperly can cause sight-robbing injuries, including retinal detachment, a rupture of the eye wall, ocular bleeding and dislocation of the eye lenses.

The high pressure inside champagne and wine bottles, especially those that are shaken just prior to opening, can cause the cork to become a projectile, in some cases moving at 50 miles per hour as it leaves the bottle neck.

That's fast enough to shatter glass, experts said.

Click here to view a video demo on the proper  the proper way to uncork a champagne bottle. 

Additionally, consider these tips on avoiding injury while opening a bottle.

Warm sparkling wine and champagne are more likely to unexpectedly pop open, so chill these beverage to at least 45 degrees Fahrenheit before opening.

• Don't shake the bottle. It's not as glamorous as it looks on television and it can cause serious eye injury.
• Point the bottle at a 45-degree angle away from yourself and any people, then hold down the cork with the palm of your hand while removing the bottle's wire hood
• Put a towel over the top of the bottle and hold the cork. 
• Hold the bottle at a 45 degree angle while twisting the bottle.
•  Counter the force of the cork by apply downward pressure as the cork leaves the bottle.