Posted by: Eye Centers of Florida in Eye Health

Mask Causing Your Glasses to Fog Up? Try These Simple Solutions!

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If you wear glasses, you’ve probably gotten used to them, but odds are, you’re not as used to wearing a mask. Wearing a mask over your nose and mouth is one of the best ways to protect yourself and others from infection, but you’ll often notice shortly after putting one on that when you exhale, your glasses fog up, making it difficult to function.

At Eye Centers of Florida, we understand how irritating and frustrating it can be to constantly battle foggy lenses. Here are a few tricks you can use to make wearing both a mask and glasses easy!

What Makes My Lenses Fog Up, Anyway?

When warm, moist air hits the cool lenses of your glasses, condensation forms, which makes your eyewear fog up. You may notice this phenomenon when you leave an air-conditioned building and step outside into hot, humid weather.

The same thing happens when your breath escapes from the top of your mask: because your breath is much warmer than your room-temperature lenses, it can fog your glasses!

How to Keep Your Glasses from Fogging Up

Wearing your glasses isn’t always optional, so when you have to wear a mask together with eyewear, what can you do to keep your lenses from fogging up? Here are a few ways to keep your vision clear while wearing a mask:

Use a Soapy Wash to Prevent Fogging

A simple, at-home solution that can keep your glasses fog-free uses materials you already have in your bathroom or kitchen: soap and water!

Before trying this solution, check with an Eye Centers of Florida optician to make sure that your lenses don’t have any special coatings that would be damaged by soap and water. Once you’ve confirmed this, wash your glasses with soapy water. Let your lenses air dry, and use a soft, microfiber cloth to wipe them off before wearing them. The invisible layer of soap that is left behind on your lenses prevents fog from forming.

Wear a Mask That Fits Well

Ill-fitting masks direct your hot breath onto your lenses. Luckily, you can stop this by making sure that your mask fits your face properly.

Masks with a built-in wire can be adjusted to fit snug against your nose and face, preventing the escape of hot air from the top of the mask, which reduces that foggy effect. Sometimes, if a mask is too large for your face, it can still let air escape even if it has an adjustable nose piece — which is why we recommend wearing a mask that fits your face well.

Manually Seal the Top of Your Mask

If you don’t have access to a mask that fits snug against your face, there are a few other ways that you can seal off the top of your mask. If you wear glasses with larger frames, or can tuck your mask under your eyewear, you can use your frames to hold the top of your mask down. You can also use skin-sensitive athletic tape to keep the fabric flush to your face.

Pad Your Mask with a Tissue

The hot breath that gathers in a mask can be easily absorbed by yet another common household item… tissues! Fastening or tucking in a tissue at the top of your mask can help soak up the warm moisture from breath that’s trying to escape past your nose, so that it never reaches your lenses.

Stay Safe While Seeing Clearly

If you’re still having difficulties keeping your glasses clear, the opticians in our optical shops may be able to recommend you an anti-fog spray for your lenses. Or, if you’re interested in clear vision without frames, we can help you find the perfect contact lenses for your needs, or offer LASIK to those who are searching for long-term solutions.

It’s important to do your part to keep yourself and others safe — and to ensure that you can still see clearly! Follow these tips to make sure that you can do both, and remember that the team at Eye Centers of Florida is here to help address all of your vision needs.

Keep Lens from Fogging Up