Are elastic face masks making your ears ache in coronavirus pandemic? Try these fixes

Mandates to wear face masks during the COVID-19 outbreak have led many people to discover something health workers have known for decades: The elastic hurts your ears.

Not immediately, but after six to eight hours, those pleasantly snug elastic bands start to pull and rub in ways that become intolerable.

Worse still, extensive face mask use is now being blamed for causing friction lesions, which can make the wearers more vulnerable to coronavirus infection, according to a report by Wound Management & Prevention.

“The clinical teams engaged in all types of the coronavirus care settings are consistently reporting facial skin tears and lesions caused by prolonged use of their protective face masks,” the report says. “Thus, skin damage can facilitate penetration of coronavirus and other pathogens into the blood circulation directly.”

Solutions to the problem have begun popping up on social media, including some for sale and others you can do yourself using common household items. Here are some examples:

This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Are elastic face masks making your ears ache in coronavirus pandemic? Try these fixes."