Taking it back to the basics again today, another one of the most important things that you need to find what fits you in the OR is the surgical mask right next to the surgical glove which is also very important and you need to find what fits you well. The mask is on your face all day long, pretty much except for when you're outbreak or walking around the hallways or something. But you got to find what works. You got to find what fits well. What is non-abrasive to your skin? And what doesn't fog up your lenses? Let's get through it.

This mask I don't know if a lot of other hospitals have this. I would say this mask as well as masks that have just the ear loops on the side of the mask where you can just loop it around your ears and the mask sits over your face. Those types of masks are not designed for surgical use. I see a lot of anesthesiologist that use this. Personally, I mean that they got rid of all of your loop masks at our hospital when they were trying to get rid of this mask but they got a lot of backlash from a lot of our anesthesiologists and stuff like that. So they had to keep it around, it doesn't properly cup your face and under your chin as a tie-back mask would.

If you're in surgery and you're doing surgery, you're at the field. The mask that you should be wearing is a proper tie-back mask. It's got ties at the top and ties at the bottom. You're going to be tying them on the top and bottom of your head. Now the majority of the masks that you will find tie-back masks that you'll find in the LR will have this foam stripping. And as you can see there's differences in the thickness of the foam stripping this foam stripping is actually it's called a fog-free foam stripping and it's supposed to help prevent your glasses from fogging up, you know your safety glasses, your regular glasses, whatever shield you're using. So this foam is designed to help prevent fogging and it's also a non-abrasive foam. So it's you know gentle to your skin. I personally don't like it because my lenses still fog up when I use them.

The fog-free mask that I use is this one and this one actually has a it's got like a film, it's not a sticky film. It's just like a thin plastic film, that goes over your nose. And for some reason, this really works well for me. It doesn't work for everybody. That's why you got to try these masks out when you get out there in the field. And that's why it's important to find what works. Some people that I know use this comes with wax paper on the inside because this is actually adhesive and this will actually stick to the bridge of your nose. I find this very abrasive. I use this for a while and it's great for keeping the fog out because this is basically like putting tape around your nose and taping the masks to your face. So really no air escapes above your nose, the bridge of your nose, and your goggles, so it's great for fog-free, but I found it very abrasive to the bridge of my nose and it would always be red and I'd be like pulling off the skin and stuff like that. It was just not a pleasant mask to have.

Some of the masks that we have have shields attached to them as you could see, and this is a great feature if you don't have glasses, or security glasses, or if you just don't like wearing them and you prefer a shield. This works great and it comes with a fog-free foam strip as well. So what works if you'd like to shield?

We've got some regular old regular masks, no fog, no nothing in there. If you just want something comfortable non-abrasive, to open up your room. You know this is the type of mask for you. If that's what you really want. Personally, I just stick with one mask and I wear that mask all the time and that's the fog-free with plastic.

Now, let's go over proper technique on putting this type mask on your face.When you get the mask out of the box, it's flat. Open it up and kind of creased where I want my nose to be. Put my nose right in that crease. Pull down the mask underneath my chin and take the top strings up over the top of head and tie the drawstring. Now don’t tie it too tight. Take these back, behind your neck, underneath your ears and again. Now your nose already has that pre-crease that we put in but it's important to push it down again and crease it down over your face. This will give you that nice seal and when you put your glasses on and you have that fog free lining underneath the mask. It'll keep that seal so won't fog up your glasses.

Now, that is the way a mask should be it should be nice up against your chin up against your neck and sealed across the top of your face. The only openings are right here in the sides. That's the proper way to put on a tie mask to take them off. You don't even need to untie them. You just break them, the drawstrings are not tough at all. It's very easy to just break them off. Get the mask thrown away.