After unconsciously sabotaging my eyeglasses over the years since I’ve been wearing them — since I was 7, roughly 20 years ago — I have recently discovered that I needed to take better care of them.

I became more concerned about this as glasses with cool features made possible by special coatings have been coming out these days.
If you’re reading this in the pandemic, you’ve probably realized you needed an anti-blue light glasses (or “computer glasses”).

Those have special coatings that can be very fragile. And the good ones don’t go for very cheap. Here’s how to help make them — and any specs you own for that matter — last longer.

Mild dishwashing soap/water only.

Avoid using strong or even mildly strong chemicals. I once used alcohol to “disinfect” my glasses and that practically dissolved any of the special coatings it had. It became noticeable once the glasses started working weirdly whenever I wear it. It somehow interferes with the refraction and there’s this constant feeling that something’s off with the glasses. It’s not nice, it can get pretty inconvenient, and it stops your eyeglasses from working at its best.

Make sure everything is dust-free.

Those dusts and dirt you see, if things aren’t in your favor, may essentially be actual microscopic debris. As such these will make “micro scratches” on your lenses which, through time, will turn in to visible scratches that will affect the way your glasses work. Be sure to blow any dust off of the lens (and the cleaning cloth as well) before proceeding with cleaning it.

Use microfiber cloth.

I had always thought that the type of cloth I use to clean my eyeglasses didn’t really matter. I’d lose those that came with the case and would just use my clothes (or sometimes tissue paper) to get the job done. Little did I know that these also make “micro abrasions” and they compound through time.

Get a hard case.

I didn’t find them useful until very recently when I learned, given all the other learnings I’ve had on the topic, that I would now really have to take my eyeglasses off more often: when changing clothes (fabric abrasion), playing the drums (sweat), and such. As physics betray us every so often, setting them aside in a nice hard-shelled case is always good practice — just in case. No pun intended.

Further Reading

And suppose you’re in to it, an in-depth medically-reviewed article from Healthline covers the same topic. Such quick readings have also informed this article one way or another.

Article cover by Utsman Media on Unsplash.