By caring properly for your specs, you will better both your sight and your bank account balance. You will help your eyes by reducing the strain that dirty lenses provide. And you will help your bank account balance by allowing your eyeglasses to last longer.
1. Work with the correct material
Shirts, even soft t-shirts, could scrape the glass of your lenses. If theyve got a protective finish like a photo-gray tint, its even more likely to scratch. The abrasions may be invisible to your eyes, but they do affect the crystal clarity that your eyeglass lenses should have. Instead of paper towels, toilet tissue or your shirt tail, use a choice fabric made just for cleaning specs (Lens Cleaner fabric). That way youll avoid microscopic marks that could obscure your glasses and your vision. They may appear to be soft, but they all have microfibres that will scratch and damage your lenses and stop them from lasting as long as they could.
2. Use a cleaner thats meant for spectacles
Plain water wont do the job because it doesnt dissolve and clean away skin oil or fingerprint smears. A cleaner thats made for glass could contain chemicals that may impair tinted or coated lenses, or be caustic to your eyes. A good coated lens cleaner or eyeglass lens cleaner (Spray and Sparkle Lens Cleaner) is hypoallergenic, and designed to be kind to optical lens coatings.
3. Clean your glasses frequently to prevent eyestrain
You should clean your glasses several times a day to prevent smearing and smudging. Insert a portable eyeglass cloth and cleaner kit into your purse, or keep a small spray can of eyeglass cleaning solution in your desk at work. Your eyes will be grateful.
4. Once your spectacles are clean – keep them clean
If you are in the habit of putting your glasses on your head to rest, when you are not “using” them, then you should know that they are going to get greasy. Your hear will drop grease and dust – either from your hair or from the gel, sprays or other things you might put on your hair – and they will all tend to soil your lenses. You might want to consider buying a cheap eyeglass chain. That way you could drop your glasses, knowing that you will never lose them and they will stay clean and last longer.
5. Ever had your glasses go foggy when you came in to a warm room?
One great way to avoid that is to use an anti-fog fabric (Anti-Fog cloth) on the lenses. The fabric leaves an invisible coating on the lenses that prevents water from condensing and fogging up your eyesight.