As an optician and optometrist, I understand how crucial it is to maintain your eyewear. Proper care not only extends the life of your glasses but also ensures optimal vision. Here are some essential tips to help you take care of your eyewear:

1. Rinse Before Cleaning

Always rinse your glasses with water before wiping them. This helps remove dust and debris that can scratch the lenses when you clean them.

2. Use the Right Cleaning Solution

Avoid household cleaners like Windex, which contain ammonia and can damage lens coatings. Instead, use sprays or cleansers specifically designed for eyeglass lenses.

3. Air Dry When Possible

If you can, let your glasses air dry. This prevents any materials from getting on the lenses. If you need to dry them quickly, use a soft, clean, lint-free cloth.

4. Choose the Right Cloth

Never use paper towels, tissues, or napkins to dry your lenses. These materials can scratch the lenses. Instead, use a microfiber cloth designed for cleaning glasses.

5. Wash Your Glasses Regularly

Clean your glasses at least once a day to keep them in optimal condition. This reduces eye strain caused by smudges, dirt, and dust.

6. Handle with Care

Hold your glasses by gripping the piece that crosses the bridge of the nose. This prevents bending the frame, which can affect your vision and comfort.

7. Proper Storage

Store your glasses in a case when you’re not wearing them. This protects them from dust, dirt, and potential damage. If you prefer a sleeker option, microfiber pouches are also effective.

8. Avoid Extreme Temperatures

Keep your glasses away from extreme heat or cold, as these conditions can damage the lenses and frames.

9. Regular Adjustments

Visit your optician regularly to ensure your glasses are properly adjusted. Misaligned glasses can cause discomfort and affect your vision.

10. Protective Eyewear

If you engage in activities that could damage your glasses, such as sports or certain work environments, consider using protective eyewear to safeguard your investment.

By following these tips, you can ensure your glasses remain in excellent condition, providing you with clear vision and comfort for years to come. Remember, taking a few extra minutes each day to care for your eyewear can make a significant difference in their longevity and performance.

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While the problem is new to us, it’s a daily challenge for people who wear glasses.

We have compiled tips for lifting the fog from your glasses when you’re wearing a mask, but first let’s go over why your lenses are steaming up in the first place.

Why are my glasses foggy?

People who wear glasses already know that eyewear fogs when you walk out of a warm house into the cold outdoor air, or when you open an oven door. Body heat and air flow lead to foggy lenses. A face mask directs much of the exhaled air upward.

When we wear a mask, warm breath can escape through the top edges, along the tops of our cheeks. When the hot air lands on cooler lenses, it creates condensation on the surface and a foggy film. Cold weather makes the problem worse. When you’re wearing a face mask, you repeatedly breathe out warm air. This air then can sneak out of the top of your mask and steam up the lenses of your glasses. Of course, this can make it difficult to see.

The “misting” of lenses happens when warm water vapor from your breath lands on the cooler lenses, producing tiny droplets that scatter light and reduce the lenses’ ability to transmit contrast (when light colors remain light and dark colors remain dark). The droplets form because of the inherent surface tension between the water molecules.

How to avoid foggy glasses

Now that you know why your lenses fog up, let’s review some ways to prevent this fog when you’re wearing glasses and a face mask.

1. Wash the lenses with mild soapy water

Before slipping on a face mask, you should wash your glasses or sunglasses lenses with mild soapy water and shake off the excess moisture. Then, let your glasses air dry or gently dry the lenses with a clean microfiber cloth.

Using this method, the lenses shouldn’t fog up once you put on the mask and glasses. Why? Cleaning the lenses with soapy water leaves a thin film that reduces the “inherent surface tension” and prods the water molecules to form a transparent layer.

2. Seal the mask

Keeping your breath in your mask and away from your spectacles keeps your lenses from fogging up. This will ensure that your mask is well-fitted and will help to prevent the amount of hot air that can reach the lens. You can start by improving the seal of the mask around the top of your face.

Mold your mask. Medical masks have built-in, bendable metal strips that you can mold to the bridge of your nose. You can add pipe cleaners or paper clips to the top of a homemade fabric mask to get the same effect.

Tighten the mask. Adjust the ties or the ear loops so the mask fits snugly against your  face. Most of the breath should be going through the mask. If you feel the air going in or out around the mask, tighten the ties.

Tape your mask. Another option is to use white athletic or medical tape or even an adhesive bandage to seal the top of the mask around the bridge of your nose. This is something a lot of medical students learn early on when they’re using eye protection goggles. Don’t use nonporous household tapes like packing tape or duct tape, which could irritate skin. Taping is a lot of work for a short trip outside, but might be warranted if you’re caring for a sick person.

Pull up your mask. An easier tip for day-to-day mask wear is to use the weight of your glasses to block the air. Pull the mask up over the bridge of the nose as high as you can (make sure it’s still under your chin too) and let your glasses rest on top of the mask.

3. Use a tissue

This is primarily an option for paper or cloth facial masks that don’t seal around your face and is another way to try to minimize the moisture that flows from your breath upwards towards your glasses. It’s a tip that comes from Japanese folks who are more experienced with wearing masks in times of crisis.

Take a single plain tissue and fold it up, and put it beneath the top edge of the mask before putting the mask on and (if possible) pinching it down. This provides two benefits.

The first benefit is that, as an absorbent cloth, the tissue will help block and absorb the moisture from your breath that would otherwise pass upwards and fog up your glasses. The second benefit is that it provides a bit of softer padding than the inside of a mask typically provides, making it a bit more comfortable to wear.

4. Adjust your glasses

If your glasses have nose pads, you can tweak the pads so that the frames sit slightly farther from your face.

Be careful, though. Altering the nose pads may slightly change your vision if you wear glasses with progressive lenses or lenses with a strong prescription. If that happens, you might need to hold your head at a different angle to compensate for the vision change.

5. Breathe downward

It might be awkward, but breathing downward can be a quick anti-fog fix. This sends the air away from your glasses.

How do you breathe downward? Hold your upper lip over your lower lip. Then blow air downward, as if you’re playing a flute.

6. Check out anti-fog lenses

This won’t fix your foggy-lens problem right away, but you might consider buying lenses with an anti-fog coating like OPTIFOG from Essilor. An anti-fog coating gives you a hassle-free answer to foggy lenses, regardless of whether the obstructed vision is triggered by a face mask or something else.

Visit us to learn more about and to compare anti-fog lens options.

I’ve tried everything, and nothing works. What’s wrong?

Now the bad news. Many eyeglasses are now treated with special protective coatings that resist glare and smudges. The problem is that the coatings also may resist anti-fog treatments, including home remedies like soapy water .

Some glasses are treated with a special coatings, which promises protection against UV rays, glare, scratches, smudges, dust and water. The coating, unfortunately, also appeared to protect the lenses from anti-fogging efforts.

If nothing works, do I just have to live with foggy lenses when I wear a mask?

As a last resort, you can try pushing your glasses forward on your nose to allow more air to circulate and stop the fog. The downside is that it could distort your vision. The only caveat is that it throws off your perception slightly. It might be less disruptive with a lesser prescription.

The last option that you could explore is perhaps getting contact lenses or getting your eyes corrected with LASIK. This would allow you to be rid of glasses for good, thus no foggy lens problems to contend with.

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This increased role of eyewear in daily life can’t be 100% fulfilled by regular eyewear. Thus it will trigger the need of Safety Eyewear as an Essential Category.

The New Normal will expect safety to be combined with fashion.

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