Keep Your Protection Safe: How to Care for your Prescription Safety Glasses

Your prescription safety glasses work hard to keep you safe, but do you ever think about protecting them? Safety glasses, like any other pair of glasses, can be damaged or weakened over time if they are not taken care of. Properly caring for your safety eyewear is one of the best ways to make sure that it maintains its quality and protects you as long as possible. The better you take care of it, the better it will protect you. To help you get the most out of your safety eyewear, here are some of the best things you should do to keep your prescription safety glasses in great condition—

Use the Right Tools

When wearing safety glasses, many people will use any nearby cloth to clean the lenses of smudges or debris. This may seem harmless enough, but using the wrong kind of fabric to wipe your lenses can damage the lens coatings, cause scratches, and even wear down the lenses over time. While it may be tempting to just use your shirt, it is important that you invest in a microfiber cloth. These can be glasses-specific (which is what we recommend), or just a CLEAN, multi-purpose microfiber towel. This particular fabric is gentle on glass or plastic surfaces, leaving no residue or lint behind. And, if your microfiber cloth ever gets dirty, it can easily be washed in a washing machine or by hand. Not only will this kind of cloth help to protect your safety glasses, but it will also give you a better clean than your shirt ever could.

Clean Regularly

You may use a cloth to clean smudges off your glasses all the time, but do you ever really clean them? Taking the time to clean your prescription safety glasses deeply and thoroughly is a great way to help ensure their longevity and effectiveness. When cleaning your safety eyewear, run it under lukewarm water to remove any initial debris (make sure the water is not hot, as this could damage your lens coatings), then take a dab of mild dish soap or use a lens cleaning spray to gently rub over the lenses with your fingers and rinse again. This will remove any remaining smudges on the lenses. Be sure to rinse any nose pads, side shields, or frame elements, too and use a microfiber cloth to dry them.

Use Anti-Fog Solution

Fog can be an annoying interruption to your work, play, or any other activity you do while wearing your protective eyewear. If it happens suddenly, it not only disrupts your current project/activity but it could potentially cause injury to you or others. Using anti-fog sprays, wipes or lens coatings can help you avoid all of this, keeping both your eyes safe and your safety glasses or goggles in optimal condition. When buying prescription safety glasses, it is often an option to add an anti-fog lens coating to your custom lenses. If not, lens treatments like anti-fog sprays or wipes are widely available for your use. With less fog, you reduce the amount of times you need to remove your safety glasses to clean them, and therefore keep both your eyes and your glasses protected for longer.

Keep Them Stored Properly

When you are done wearing your safety glasses for the day, what do you do with them? Do you put them on your car dashboard? Do you keep them at your workplace? No matter where you put your safety eyewear at the end of the day, make sure that they are in a case with proper protection. A hard-shell case is a great option for protecting your safety glasses, as it can often withstand a certain amount of impact such as falling off a shelf and a case can help keep out particles like dust or debris. Even when stored in a case it’s best to not keep them in direct sunlight or anywhere else with extreme temperatures. Keeping your safety glasses properly stored will help ensure that they continue keeping you and your investment protected, especially with expensive prescription safety glasses.

Replace Them If They’re Damaged

Safety glasses are meant to be impact resistant and some even carry a high-impact rating based on various safety standards like ANSI Z87.1 in the USA. However, if your safety eyewear has been cracked or broken they should be replaced. Even a small “spider web” crack in the lenses of safety glasses, side shields, or frame means they’re no longer impact resistant. Safety eyewear is designed and tested with the intention of helping to keep you from being seriously injured but they’re not indestructible. So be sure to regularly inspect your safety glasses, goggles and face shields; especially after they’ve been hit or dropped. In the case of safety glasses, the lenses can be dislodged so make sure they do not wiggle in the frame. If you wear protective eyewear on the job be sure to report any damage to your supervisor. Ultimately, it’s best to get your safety eyewear replaced if there is structural damage other than a small scratch or ding.

How well your prescription safety eyewear holds up over time depends on how well you take care of it. You can easily maintain your eye protection by making these steps a part of your routine, whether at work, home, or play. Shouldn’t your safety glasses get the same protection they provide for you? We think so. This is why each pair of prescription safety glasses from SafeVision comes with a protective case or pouch & microfiber cleaning cloth. We also offer anti-fog sprays, drops and wipes. If you are looking for more information about prescription safety glasses visit our website to read some of our other SafeVision blogs.