There is nothing more annoying to those people who wear eyeglasses than those smudges that seem to magically appear on your lenses. The first thing you want to do is to remove those smudges as quickly as possible, which is why so many people grab a tissue or the tail of their shirt, breath on their glasses and wipe away the smudges. While this may temporarily remove the smudges it can also leave your glasses scratched. So what is the best way to clean your eyeglasses, while helping to prevent those damaging scratches? As surprising as it may be seem the answer is that dish soap and water is the best way to remove those smudges and built up oils on your glasses.
How to Properly Clean Your Glasses
There are a few steps to properly cleaning your glasses while reducing the risk of scratches.
- Wash and dry your hands to remove any lotion, dirt and oil from your hands and fingers before you begin cleaning your glasses.
- Rinse your glasses under luke warm water. (This removes any dirt and dust that can scratch the lenses of your glasses.)
- Apply a small drop of mild dish washing soap to each lens and using your fingers wash your lenses. Once the lenses are clean wash the nose piece, and the complete frame to remove dust and oil from your entire glasses.
- Rinse your glasses completely using the luke warm water.
- Shake off the majority of water from your glasses and then dry the lenses with your a microfiber cloth.
It is best to clean your eyeglasses daily to help prevent oil build up and to keep the lenses clean.
Alternative to Cleaning Glasses with Soap and Water
If you are traveling or spending all day at work then cleaning your eyeglasses with dish washing liquid and water may not be possible. So here a couple of alternative ways to clean your eyeglasses safely.
- Disposable Lens Cleaning Wipes- Keeping some individual packaged pre-moistened disposable lens cleaning wipes on hand is a great way to be able to clean your glasses when you are go. Before wiping your lenses blow off any loose dust and then use the damp wipe to clean the lenses. Since the wipes dry quickly you can then dry the glasses with the same wipe you washed the glasses with.
- Eyeglass Cleaning Spray- Most vision centers sell approved eyeglass cleaning sprays suitable to cleaning your eyeglasses. If your eyeglasses have anti-reflective coating you need to make sure that the eyeglass spray you purchase is approved for cleaning anti-reflective lenses. When using eyeglass spray to clean your glasses make sure you use enough spray to wash away any dust before drying your glasses with a clean cloth.
Keep in mind that you should never, ever try and remove smudges when your eyeglasses are dry. Not only can doing so smear the smudge rather than remove it, but wiping dry lenses with a dry cloth can also drag the grains of dirt across the lenses causing scratches.