We can anticipate that face covers will continue to be a part of our life because of COVID-19. From a doctor’s office, to the supermarket, will require you to wear face covers to prevent the spread of virus. But, many people don’t have experiences wearing a face cover and may wear them incorrectly. To help, we’ve put together an easy guide on how to wear a mask correctly. And everyone should understand some of the common mistakes to avoid. Here are five common mask mistakes we’re seeing:
1. Nose out:
Face covers and disposable masks are designed to be worn over your nose and mouth to help stop the spread of your respiratory droplets and to prevent you from exposure to other people’s respiratory droplets. Wearing face covers over your nose ensures that your respiratory droplets or nasal mucus remains within your mask and also helps provide some level of protection from other people’s infectious droplets contacting the inside of your nose.
2. Touching the Mask With Dirty Hands:
Make sure your hands are clean before adjusting face covers. It’s best to avoid touching your face in general. When you’re done wearing the mask for the day, there’s a chance you could contaminate yourself taking it off. The bacteria on your face cover could get on your hands, and then it would spread. Your hands should be clean before you originally put the mask on. If not, you get the participles from your hands on the previously sterile mask. For example, your fingers can touch and contaminate the inside part of the mask.
3. Dirty, Damaged Mask or wrong size :
Any rips or tears in a mask renders it ineffective. You should also change out your mask if it becomes wet, soiled or shows signs of wear or the elastic gets broken or stretched out. If you’re using a cloth face cover, you should wash it after every use. Just like other materials and pieces of clothing, they can become contaminated by bacteria and viruses in our environment and can cause an infection if they’re worn for a prolonged period of time without being cleaned.
If the mask you’re wearing doesn’t fit, it’s not as effective. If it’s too small, you’re either leaving your nose or chin exposed. Virus particles can get in through the side openings if it’s too loose. The mask should be snug against your face! This goes for kid masks as well.
4. You’re Wearing It Wrong
This depends on the type of face cover that you are using. A bandanna does not have a top or a bottom. However, medical masks do. They have a top that includes pliable metal that can bend around the bridge of your nose to create a tighter fit. This can help prevent you from fogging up your glasses when you exhale your hot, hot, wet, wet breath. If your face cover is upside down, this nose bridge wire or strip will be instead on your neck, which will make it, here’s that word again, useless.
