Dry eyes from wearing a face mask

A face mask can dry your eyes when breath escapes out the top edge and flows up over them. Every exhale sends a stream of warm, moving air across the eye’s surface, and moving air speeds evaporation from the tear film. Pinching the nose wire snug, choosing a mask that fits, taking breaks and using a lubricating drop exactly as labeled usually make long mask days more comfortable.

Why does wearing a mask dry out your eyes?

When a mask fits loosely across the bridge of the nose, it works like a chimney. You breathe out, the air can’t pass through the fabric as easily as it can slip out the top, so a good share of it goes up and over your lower lids. Repeat that with every breath for a full shift and the eyes have been in a steady breeze for hours.

If you wear glasses, you already know the sign: fog. The same air that fogs lenses is flowing across your eyes. Fogging that comes and goes with every breath means the top edge is open.

How to fit a mask so air doesn’t hit your eyes

• Mold the nose wire. Press it down along both sides of your nose with two fingers, not just pinched in the middle.
• Pick the right size. A mask that’s too wide leaves gaps under the eyes; one that’s too small pulls down and opens the top.
• Pull it up before tightening. Set the top edge just below your lower lashes, then adjust the ear loops or straps.
• Try the loop adjusters. Knotting ear loops or using a strap behind the head can draw the sides closer to the face.
• Check with a breath test. Breathe out firmly; if you feel air on your eyes or see fog, reshape the wire and try again.

Glasses help as a second seal. Resting the frame on top of the mask’s upper edge can press it closer to your cheeks and redirect what does escape.

Respirators at work

If your job requires a tight-fitting respirator, such as an N95, the fit isn’t a matter of preference. Under OSHA’s respiratory protection standard, employers who require those respirators must have workers fit-tested, and a mask that passes a fit test leaks far less around the top. Don’t modify a work respirator to make it more comfortable; ask whoever runs your program about a different size or model.

Long shifts in a mask

Hospital staff, dental teams, lab workers, food processors, painters and construction crews can spend eight or more hours masked. Several things stack up over a shift like that:

• Breath flowing upward with every exhale.
• Building ventilation that keeps air moving around the face.
• Close work under bright lights, which reduces blinking.
• Fewer chances to step away and rest the eyes.

Use the breaks you do get. When you take the mask off in a break room, blink fully several times, look at something across the room, and wash your hands before touching your face. Dry eyes on long nursing shifts and dry eyes for dental hygienists cover two of the most mask-heavy jobs.

Masks in winter and on airplanes

Cold-weather masks and scarves cause the same effect outdoors. A neck gaiter pulled up over the nose sends warm breath up into cold air, which can fog glasses and then freeze on lashes. On flights, cabin air is already dry, and a loose mask adds a breeze of its own. A snug top edge helps in both places.

Using eye drops on mask days

Plan drops for times when the mask comes off and your hands are clean: before the shift, at a meal break and after work. Quell’s directions are Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye. The label’s tip reads Do not touch tip of bottle to any surface to avoid contamination, which matters in clinical and industrial settings where surfaces may be anything but clean.

The Uses section reads: For use as a protectant against further irritation or to relieve dryness of the eye. Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss, which is the problem breath blowing across the eye creates. The complete label is on the Drug Facts page. The label says Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F), so a locker or a bag you carry beats a car on a hot or freezing day.

When it’s more than mask dryness

Dryness that keeps going on days you don’t wear a mask, eye pain, or vision that changes are reasons to see an eye doctor. The label’s stop-use advice: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours. If your eyes still bother you after improving the fit, the dry eye self-check can help you put your symptoms into words before an appointment. It’s not a diagnosis.