During the Winter or particularly hot summers, foggy eyeglasses are a problem faced by almost all people who wear eyeglasses. This reduces your ability to see or function and can be particularly dangerous if you are in the midst of an activity such as driving or carrying hot beverages.
Firstly, let’s deal with the best method for cleaning one’s eyeglasses. What makes caring for your optical investment slightly tricky is that some materials tend to scratch your lenses and may damage the coatings, such as your clothing, towels, paper towels, tissues, and regular soap. Note: If you have specific coatings on your eyeglasses, such as anti-reflective or anti-scratch, then improper cleaning can cause them to fog up – irreparably.
By following a few instructions, caring for your eyeglasses can be simple and effective. Every pair of eyeglasses should come complete with a cotton, lint free (micro-fiber) cloth. If you don’t have one, get one. This should be the one and only piece of material that you use to clean your lenses. You should also purchase special eyeglass cleaner from your optometrist and use that in place of soap.
You should first run your eyeglasses under warm water to remove all foreign items that may scratch your lenses. Next, hold the eyeglasses by the nose piece and spray both sides of both lenses with the cleaner and rub both the lenses and the frame with the cotton cloth before rinsing the glasses in warm water to wash off the cleaner. Then rub again with the dry part of the lint free cloth. Note: The lint free cloth can be washed under warm water and air dried.
Now, let’s look at the reasons why your eyeglasses fog up and the ways to prevent this from happening. Eyeglasses fog up when there is a quick change in temperature – whether from hot to cold, or cold to hot. Basically, for a few moments your eyeglasses are both cold and hot at the same time, making them fog up until they regulate to the temperature of where you are. One tip is to remove your eyeglasses when you are hot and sweaty and entering a cool/cold area. Even is just for a few moments, this will prevent your body heat bouncing off the glasses and causing them to fog up because of the cold air around you.
There are also very special anti-fog sprays which can prevent fog. Please note: be sure that the product is trustworthy so that you don’t damage the lenses – especially if there are other coatings. The other alternative is to carry your microfiber, cotton lint-free cloth with you so that you can easily wipe your glasses if they do happen to fog up.
Just remember that when you need to buy glasses, your glasses frames and their fitted prescription lenses should be of the highest possible quality and bought from a reputable retailer. Prescription glasses are one of the most important purchases you’ll ever make as glasses afford you the optical pleasure of seeing clearly and enjoying life to the fullest!
Hillary Glaser is a social networking specialist and expert in cross-media promotion, currently working on promoting prescription eyeglasses. She is the Director of Marketing and Special Projects for GlassesUSA – the easiest way to buy glasses online, which now offers free shipping on all US orders with the code FreeShip10.