Side Shields for Everyday Glasses: What They Do and What They Don't

You are on the bike, or raking leaves, or standing on a pier in a crosswind, and a speck of grit finds its way past your glasses and into the corner of your eye. Glasses cover the front of your eyes well. The sides are open, and the wind does not care which way your lenses point.

Side shields close that gap. They are small and clear, and they do one job well. They are also easy to mistake for something they are not, so start with what they are.

What a slip-on side shield is

Our side shields are clear, flexible TPU pieces that slide onto the temple arm of your glasses, right behind the hinge, and curve around to cover the open side of the frame. No tools, no screws, and they come off the same way they went on. Each pair is marked R and L, so the curve faces outward on both sides.

The size that matters is the width of the temple arm, measured where it leaves the hinge.

Measure your own frame with a ruler before you choose. A shield that is too loose turns on the arm and leaves the gap open again.

Most plastic frames with a broad arm need the standard size, as long as the arm is under 12 mm. Thin metal arms and small frames take the slim ones. If you share the pack with family, the bigger packs of the standard shields mean everyone in the house can keep a pair on their own glasses, and a spare pair in the car.

Putting them on

Fitting takes a minute, and a mirror helps. Hold the glasses with the lenses facing you and find the R and L marks on the shields. Slide each shield onto its own arm and push it forward until it meets the back of the frame. Put the glasses on and look straight ahead in the mirror: no daylight should show between the shield and the rim of the lens.

Then check the corners of your view. NIOSH asks that eyewear be chosen and fitted for coverage, comfort and peripheral vision, and the last of those is easy to forget with a clear shield, because it does not look as if it blocks anything. Turn your eyes left and right without moving your head. If the edge of the shield sits in the corner of your view, slide it a little further back along the arm. Before you drive, do the same check over your shoulder.

What they are good for

Wind and what it carries. A bike ride on a gusty day, a walk on the beach, sweeping the garage, an afternoon in the garden when the leaves are blowing. In each of these the trouble comes from the side, and a shield that wraps the side of the frame turns it away.

NIOSH describes where eye injuries come from at work, and the pattern holds at home too: most are caused by small particles, such as dust, metal slivers and wood chips, striking or scraping the eye. Those particles do not only arrive head on. Closing the sides of your glasses is a sensible step for the windy, dusty days of ordinary life.

What they do not do

Here is the part that matters most. At work, eye protection is governed by OSHA's eye and face standard, 29 CFR 1910.133. If anything can fly at your eyes on the job, your employer owes you eye protection that covers the sides as well. Clip-on and slide-on side shields are acceptable only if they meet the requirements of that section. The devices must follow ANSI Z87.1, or be shown to protect as well, and they must carry the maker's marking.

A January 2007 OSHA letter answered the side shield question directly. Detachable side shields that meet the standard are allowed on safety glasses, an employer may still require permanent ones, and any change to safety glasses has to keep them within the Z87.1 specification.

Everyday prescription glasses are not safety glasses, and a shield added to them does not change that. So a MELASA side shield is an extra side cover for the glasses you wear every day. It is not safety eyewear, and on a job where eye protection is required, it is not what the rule asks for.

If your job calls for eye protection

For glasses wearers, the standard gives two routes. The protection can build your prescription into its own design, which means prescription safety glasses marked to Z87.1. Or it can fit over your glasses without disturbing them, which means goggles or a cover lens. OSHA's shipyard eTool lists the same choice for workers who need correction: safety glasses with their prescription, or a cover lens or goggles.

The Anti-Fog Safety Goggles we sell are shaped to sit over your glasses. The lens is polycarbonate, the wrap-around frame is soft PVC that bends to your face, an elastic strap adjusts to your head and four vents let air move. We sell them as meeting ANSI Z87.1. Before you rely on them, or on any eyewear, for a job, find the Z87 marking on the eyewear itself.

Put them on so your glasses stay where they sit, which is how 1910.133 describes it. Glasses first, then the goggles, then tighten the strap until the seal meets your face all the way round. If your glasses get pushed down your nose, loosen the strap or wear a slimmer frame underneath.

The mark to look for

ANSI/ISEA Z87.1 is the standard behind the mark. The 2025 edition of the standard covers the performance, testing and marking requirements for eye and face protection at work and at school, and the update makes the markings clearer about which hazard a product covers. The International Safety Equipment Association, which publishes it, also says plainly that no single product suits every situation.

ISEA gives the reason it matters: roughly 20,000 US workers a year suffer eye injuries that need treatment, and it says up to 90 percent of them could be avoided with the right protective equipment. A marking you can read on the frame is how you know the eyewear in your hand is that equipment.

One more detail from the same standard is useful when you compare goggles. Anti-fog is an optional performance rating, not a requirement. The standard does not require it, and our goggles carry an anti-fog coating as an extra. In winter, a balaclava with a mesh panel over the mouth, such as our Thermal Fleece Balaclava, lets your breath out the front instead of up into the lens.

A quick way to choose

• Windy walk, bike ride, gardening on a gusty day: side shields on the glasses you already wear.
• A job where your employer requires eye protection: prescription safety glasses marked Z87, or goggles over your glasses, chosen with your employer.
• A task at home that throws chips or dust: goggles over your glasses, because they cover the front and the sides at once.
• Glasses under a winter liner: a cap with glasses slots, so the arms pass through the fabric. Our winter skull caps include several.

Look after the shields and they keep their shape. Rinse them under the tap when dust or sawdust builds up on the inside face, dry them with the cloth you use for your lenses, and store them flat in the case of your glasses rather than loose in a pocket, where the thin edge bends. Swap the pair when the clear plastic clouds over: a shield you cannot see through at the edge is pushing your eyes to turn your head instead.

Where to find them

Both sizes of side shields and the goggles are on our side shields and goggles shelf. For the full set of rules with every source linked, including the OSHA letter on side shields, read our eye protection guide. And measure that temple arm before you order.