How to check the front and back of a disposable mask

How to wear mask correctly

  1.  Overviews
    1. This is a way to distinguish the front and back of a commonly used disposable mask.
    2. Disposable masks include dental masks, surgical masks, and some fine dust masks.
    3. Various methods have been introduced on how to distinguish the front and back of such disposable masks.
    4. Some of them are clearly wrong, as in the example below.
      1. Selecting the front and back by looking at the trademark.
      2. Referring to the attachment direction of rubber band or fixing strap.
    5. On the other hand, there are methods that are not wrong in principle, but are difficult to apply universally.
      1. Wearing the white side toward the face and the blue side outside.
        1. Looking at the rationale for this method, the partially waterproof blue side helps to protect against external droplets, while the hygroscopic white side helps absorb some of the moisture contained in the breath exhaled by the mask wearer.
        2. However, some of the masks on the market are white on both sides. Even recently, various products have been released, including masks that are entirely black.
        3. The method of wearing the white side to the face and the blue side to the outside is reasonable in itself, but there are limitations to the universal application to all disposable masks.
    6. Not only is this variety of information related to wearing a mask difficult to understand, there is a risk that it will prevent you from wearing the mask correctly.
    7. As a surgeon, I would like to introduce an easy and simple way to wear a disposable mask correctly.
  2. Materials
    1. Disposable mask
      1. It is a mask with three to four horizontal folds.
      2. A wire core is built into the nose of the mask.
  3. Methods
      1. The side with the wire core is the top of the mask.
      2. Check the horizontal folds when you open the mask. (See illustration)
        1. The side of the horizontal folds facing upwards is the inside of the mask.
        2. The side of the horizontal folds facing downward is the outside of the mask.
    1. Check the position of the wire core and the direction of the horizontal folds, and wear it in close contact with the face.
  4. Notes
    1. It is easy to remember if you keep in mind that the outer side of the horizontal folds faces upwards and that there may be external contaminants here.
    2. Even based on the direction of the fold, the wearing method based on the white and blue sides can be satisfied.
      1. As a result of investigating several masks on the market, the white and blue masks were all folded.
      2. It has been found that if the mask with the white and blue sides is worn according to the above method, the blue side will face outwards without exception.
      3. If the fold based method is followed, the blue side of the mask will always face outwards when wearing a mask with white and blue sides.
    3. If you have any further questions about this, please leave a comment.

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