How to stop your glasses from fogging when you wear a mask
NEW YORK - Anyone who wears glasses has faced this problem since being told to wear a mask or other face covering when in public during the coronavirus pandemic: fogged-up lenses. So what can you do to stay fog-free?
Around 64% of American adults wear eyeglasses, according to the Vision Council of America. Dr. Gareth Lema is among them. He has practiced ophthalmology for 10 years and has worn glasses his entire life.
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"This one became relevant even before covid because I'd have to wear a mask in the OR," Lema, of Mount Sinai New York's Eye and Ear Infirmary, told FOX 5 NY.
When one wears both a surgical mask and eye glasses, the moisture from one's breath funnels upwards towards one's eyes. Lema explained that this is because the mask may not fit tightly on one's face.
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Thankfully, for those bespectacled among us just getting used to wearing a mask every day, Lema offered a solution.
"You just want to pinch it around your nose under your glasses really really well," Lema said.
That ensures that the top of one's mask remains in close contact with the skin and channels one's breath away from the lenses. (Editor: Some masks, such as N95 respirators, have a metal band that cinches to the bridge of your nose.)
"It vents out the sides," Lema said.
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Lema offered an even more secure—albeit less fashionable—fix when your glasses pinching your mask fail to provide as tight of a seal as you desire.
"In the OR, I've been doing this for years," he said. "You take just some medical tape—you can get this at any drug store—and you tape from the middle here all the way down to the edge of the mask."