How To Stop Glasses Steaming Up When Wearing A Mask

With new legislation here in the UK recommending everyone wears a face mask when out shopping or in public areas indoors, we glasses wearers are suffering from a new problem. The steaming up or fogging of our lenses on our glasses.

Before COVID-19 and the mandatory wearing of face masks, this was never a problem, but now we are starting to suffer from breath escaping from the top of the mask and causing the lenses in our glasses to mist or steam up.

The key to stopping your glasses from misting up or fogging is to understand why it happens in the first place.

Why do glasses steam up when wearing a face mask?

The fogging is caused by your hot breath escaping from the top of the mask. We all know hot things rise, so it’s only natural for your warm breath to escape from the top of your face mask as you breathe. This then hits the cooler frames and lenses on your glasses and condenses upon them.

The side effect of this is this moisture then makes your nose pads slippy, reducing their grip and your glasses start to slip down your nose.

4 ideas to stop your glasses steaming up

Well, all is not lost, here are 3 ideas which can be implemented to alleviate the problem.

1. Glasses over your face mask

The simplest idea to try first is to just put your glasses over the top of your face mask. If your face mask comes high enough over your nose and follows the contours of your face fairly well, you may be able to get away with resting your glasses on top of the face mask.

This reduces your hot breath that escapes from the top of the mask and travels more behind your glasses than on to the lenses themselves.

Depending on how your glasses fit on your face mask this may just work for you and is definitely one to try first.

2. Tissue in your face mask

If that doesn’t work you can always add tissue to the top edge of your face mask. This tissue captures the moisture from your breath as it travels up past your nose and towards your glasses and lenses, stopping them from steaming up.

To do this follow these instructions.

3. Use Antifog wipes

Now available to purchase from any of our branches, are CLear-It antifog wipes. These work not only as a lens cloth for your glasses but also contain a special coating, which transfers to your lenses and stops them from fogging whilst wearing a face mask.

Once you have wiped your glasses lenses with the antifog cloth it prevents water condensation and water vapour forming on the lens. The coating lasts for up to 72 hours, depending on how often you touch your glasses, but with a simple wipe of the antifog cloth, it can be refreshed.

They are easy to use and can be used up to 60 times, before requiring a new one. Full instructions are included and it certainly makes wearing a mask a lot easier.

4. Switch to contact lenses

The final idea is to ditch your glasses. Maybe trying contact lenses will solve the problem.

If you have not tried contact lenses before then, please make an appointment and we can help you try and test a range of lenses to suit you and your needs.

If you have tried contact lenses before and you didn’t get on with them, then, please do try again. Contact lens technology has changed a lot over the past few years and they are not the hard itchy lenses they used to be. There is now a range of solutions to suit individuals and circumstances.

You can try them on in our practice and take a few samples to try at home, we are here to help and you won’t have to guess at what you need.