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You're Ruining Your Glasses: Here's How

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Even if you're happy to be seeing better with your first pair of eyeglasses, you may not realize that every day you could be doing things that scratch up the lenses or ruin the frames. Your daily habits might make your glasses more difficult to see clearly out of and more uncomfortable to wear. Here are some ways you could be ruining your eyeglasses.

You're Not Rinsing Lenses Before Wiping Them

One of the biggest mistakes that people make with their glasses is that they wipe them with their shirts, napkins and tissues. But even if you use appropriate soft microfiber cloths, wiping the lenses before you rinse them can mean you're essentially rubbing dust and debris directly into the lenses themselves. Rinsing lenses with clean water first will help wash away those particles so that you're less likely to scratch up each lense.

You're Bending the Frames When You Wipe Lenses

When you wipe lenses to clean them, if you're like a lot of people, you hold one end of the frames and vigorously wipe. Over time, this can bend the frames, which will make them lie on your face differently and may make them uncomfortable. For that reason, whenever you hold the frames, hold them right where the bridge of your nose fits.

You're Using Glass Cleaner

You might think water isn't good enough for your glasses; you may consider that a commercial glass cleaner works for the windows in your house so it could be suitable for your eyeglasses too. This is a mistake; commercial products for regular glass have chemicals that could actually damage your eyeglasses, particularly if there are lense coatings. Don't use anything for cleaning except water and a solution formulated for your glasses that you can purchase directly from your vision center.

You Don't Store Them Properly

While you may have gotten one of those soft pouches when you picked up your eyeglasses, depending on your home environment you may need something more substantial. Dogs, children and your own forgetfulness may mean that the glasses, even in the soft pouch, can be sat on, stepped on or otherwise damaged. For that reason, it's probably a good idea to spend a few extra dollars and get a hard case that will provide more protection. This is even more true if you aren't using a pouch at all and are just leaving your glasses out on the sideboard or coffee table.

Now that you're aware of what you could be doing to damage your glasses, you can change your actions. Going to a local vision center and talking to an optometrist about additional ways to protect your eyeglasses is also a smart idea. For more information, contact a center such as Dr. Charles A. Richards, O.D.


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