During this unique time, advice is pretty uniformly “stay home, don’t touch your face and wash your hands frequently”. How do glasses factor in? Can they play a part in our health? Here are a few thoughts from Dr. Stacy L. Pineles, MD,MS and Director of Ophthalmology at UCLA.
Wearing glasses are both practical and a protective shield
Glasses are a protective mechanism - we use them all the time to protect people's eyes when they are monocular (or have low vision in one eye) to protect their other eye from things flying in. Wearing glasses is a good way to shield your eyes from respiratory droplets if someone happens to cough or sneeze near you. Of course, because of this, patient's should treat their glasses like any other surface and clean them frequently before touching them. And anytime they touch their glasses, they should wash their hands.
Clean your glasses frequently - this means daily!
Cleaning instructions for glasses vary by material but alcohol wipes are always a good starting point for the frames only (caution: alcohol may destroy certain lens coatings). You can also use old fashioned soap and water. With Fitz Frames, we make it easy to clean the temples and clean every nook and cranny - just disassemble the temples and pop them back in after cleaning - without having to use a screwdriver!
Always have a back-up
Having extra pairs on hand is highly recommended. You never know when one may break and reordering lead times are often greater than several weeks. During this period, ordering from home is a great option given the social distancing recommendations. Moreover, many eye doctors are closed except for emergencies and you do not want to find yourself in a bad position.
Forgoing contacts
If you wear contact lenses, the CDC is recommending you switch to glasses in order to minimize touching your eyes. I think everyone knows by now that coronavirus can be spread by respiratory droplets into the eye (or touching your eye with the virus on your hand), nose or mouth. So it is crucial for everyone to protect their eyes, not touch or rub their eyes, and all the other standard recommendations that are coming out of the CDC and WHO. Coronavirus can also spread through tears and wearing glasses over contacts can help minimize that.