Fogging with surgical loupes has been an issue for many years. However, in these 10-12 months, fogging with even the best surgical loupes has become a serious issue with face shields, face masks, extra PPP, and varying room temperatures.
When surgeons and medical professionals purchased their loupes in the past, they did not pay much attention to the construction of lenses. Hence, they never realized that fogging could be a point of concern here. With the rise of COVID-19, the environment has become quite challenging to deal with, especially when it comes to using loupes.
Read on to learn more about fogging in loupes and how to combat this problem.
Many medical professionals go through this nuisance of having their loupes, face shield, or glasses fogging up because of the mask. Let us have a look at what causes the problem and find ways to mitigate the same.
What causes fogging up?
Technically, the root cause behind finding fog in your loupes is temperature. Fog is formed due to the breath; unless the room's thermostat is set at 98 degrees. This means the equipment is at a lower temperature than the breath. When the warm breath hits the cooler surface, be it lenses, shield, or surgical loupes, it causes it to condense, ultimately resulting in fog on its surface.
The thing about breath is that you can't lower its temperature. Nevertheless, you can still take some measures to combat your breath that hits your equipment and clouds your vision.
Wear a mask that is properly sealed
There are masks that do not have a very good seal around the top of them; such masks let your breath escape which directly hits your equipment. You can even seal the mask yourself when in urgency, with some tape, cloth, or foam. Take any comfortable fabric; simply cut it or roll it so it is easy to rest inside the top of the mask so the air cannot escape towards your equipment. This will do enough to prevent your equipment from fogging up and make it easy for you to carry on with your work.
Increase the airflow in and around your equipment
When the warm breath finds no place to go, then it will most likely fog up your equipment. When there is some airflow on and around your face, it ensures that there is the air around the equipment, and it will help mitigate the fogging issue.
Warm up the equipment you are going to use before using it.
Cooler temperatures tend to cool up the room and the things it consists of. If you enter your office and find it cool when you go to work in the morning, then all of your equipment there will most likely be cool too and hence be prone to fogging up. In that case, find a window inside your office that has proper sunlight coming in. Set your loupes, shield, or lenses in the sunlight for a few minutes before using them. Wearing them around can do the trick, too, if you do not mind wearing them around for a while. Wearing them around before starting a procedure can increase the temperature of the loupes.
So those are some of the ways you can approach to combat fog in your loupes. Do you wish to know what else you can do to ensure the temperature remains favorable for your loupes and the clarity in your procedure also remains up to the notch? Making use of a led surgical headlight, headlights will most likely provide the warmth that is required to keep your loupes from fogging up. On top of that, it increases the visibility of intricate details to make your procedure even simpler.
Having led surgical headlights will give you the confidence to see things more clearly; pure white light delivering ultra-brightness can make the job relatively easier. Dental Loupes with light by Schultz is the perfect eyewear to help you see with confidence.
