How to Stop Your Glasses Fogging Up With a Mask

Wallet, keys, phone...facemask! As the world comes together in the fight to reduce COVID 19, we find ourselves with a new (in some cases, legally required) item to make sure we don't leave the house without.

Facemasks have now become second nature to us, a part of our wardrobe if you like. As we know from our current wardrobe not everything will always go together and that is exactly the case with facemasks and glasses. In addition to the qualms that come with mask-wearing, you’ll also deal with having your glasses slip from their positions or covered in a cloud of fog every minute.

The reasons your glasses are fogging up while wearing a mask is because of the limited airflow around your nose. This restriction causes your breath (obviously warm) to leave from the top of your mask – right through your glasses (cold). The warm air condenses on your cool glasses to leave behind fog that hinder/reduces your vision. When this condensation happens on your nose, you might also have to deal with a slippery pair of glasses afterward.

So, to save you the stress of having to wipe your lenses now and then, the following tips will keep the fog away:
 

Check the Fit of your Mask

Wearing a loose mask will expose you to the risk of coming in contact with infectious droplets. Poorly fitting masks also ensure that every breath you take out goes straight to your glasses, and have you wipe all over again.

Hence, you need to make sure your mask is comfortably secured around your nose – without being tight. A mask with a nose bridge wire will also ensure that your breath doesn’t escape the wrong way. We advise patients to use medical tape (hypoallergenic so no skin irritation and available in pharmacy) to tape the mask across the bridge of their nose to stop airflow
 

Soap and Water Protection

If your glasses didn’t come with a fog-resistant coating, keep them fog-free with a soapy film. Wash your glasses in a soap and water solution, then air-drying them. The film keeps fog from forming on your glasses.

Use Anti-Fogging Products

Your glasses may also benefit from any one of the anti-fogging products widely available in the market.

Direct Your Breath Downward

If you’re not up for the stress of wiping and washing, try to keep your breath away from the top of your mask. Direct your exhalation downward so that nothing condenses on your glasses.

Try Contact Lenses

With contact lenses, you won’t have to worry about having fog in the way of your sight. Consult your optician for help to know which lenses to use and how to use them.

Laser Eye Surgery

Every other tip mentioned in this post still leaves you with the root problem – an eye defect. Be it nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism; laser eye surgery is what you need to correct that defect so that fogging becomes a thing of the past for you.

During laser eye surgery, a surgeon uses a femtosecond laser to create a flap in your cornea. The laser is then used to realign the tissues beneath the cornea, to correct the eye defect.

After laser eye surgery, you might experience dryness, blurred vision, and slight burning. You may not be able to wash the eyes for a few hours, and you may need to shield them while sleeping. Nevertheless, within a week, you won’t have to worry about glasses and fogging.

Laser eye surgery is a permanent solution to this problem. Face masks could be around for a long time. Laser eye surgery will help eliminate the constant need for glasses so there will be no more worrying about glasses fogging up.