What's the right way to clean and treat your glasses?
Crystal-clear lenses – eyeglass wearers love that great feeling when they put on their glasses after cleaning and enjoy unhindered vision again. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our glasses were always clean, with smears, streaks and fingerprints a thing of the past? Proper lens care doesn’t only ensure better vision. It also lengthens the life of your glasses. Improper cleaning can damage modern lenses, even if they have an anti-scratch hard coating.
Tissues or shirt sleeves should not be used to clean your glasses, even if you’re desperate. Clothing and tissues often have particles of dust or dirt, which when rubbed on the lenses, causes micro-scratches. As these accumulate, they gradually impair the quality of the lenses, and your vision suffers as a result. Scratches cannot be removed either from plastic or glass lenses. Even if the defect only appears to be of a cosmetic nature, light is dispersed by the micro-fine scratches, irritating the eye. Then you have to buy new glasses.
Cleaning your glasses properly – what to do
The following rule applies both for thorough cleaning of your glasses at home and for fast but effective cleaning when you are out and about: you should start by rubbing a micro-fibre cloth or a folded lens cleaning wipe gently over the surface to first remove coarse dirt particles.
Your glasses deserve a good home! Store them in a hard case whenever you're not wearing them. If you don't have a case with you, make sure you put them in a safe spot, with the lenses facing upwards. It is also important to ensure that your glasses are not exposed to extreme heat. Temperatures of over 80 degrees centigrade can damage even the toughest lenses or frames. Plastic lenses, in particular, should not be subjected to high temperatures. This could have an adverse effect on the durability of lens coatings (the anti-reflective coating, for example). Extreme temperature fluctuations could lead to surface cracks due to the different structures of the base lens and the coating. Therefore, neither your case nor your spectacles should be left for long periods of time in a sauna or on your car dashboard in the summer.
