You've probably seen the popular Vanderbilt Health masking video circulating on TV and social media. There's no question about it: Wearing face masks and engaging in other infection prevention methods are contributing to incremental declines in COVID-19 numbers for the Middle Tennessee region.
But wearing a mask so frequently can lead to some unintended consequences, including skin irritations and breakouts. A recent article in VUMC Voice offered a few hacks to keep your skin healthy. Those include:
- Wash your face with a skin cleanser containing salicylic acid at bedtime.
- Keep your mask clean.
- Ensure that your mask fits properly over your mouth and nose and isn’t too tight or too loose.
- Avoid makeup when wearing a mask.
- Use a gentle moisturizer every day.
Convincing children and teens to wear masks is another tough task. Katherine L. Bennett, MEd, CCLS, a Certified Child Life Specialist at Monroe Carell, Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, recommends modeling good behavior first and foremost. "By helping children understand how wearing a mask fights the COVID-19 germ, they can learn that we all have an important role in helping our communities stay healthy," she writes in a MySouthernHealth article.
