The field of the inventions is related to a multi feature face mask frame that gets attached to face masks including viral protection and surgical masks. This attachment helps protect and soothe people's face from irritation, bruising and help circulating blood under the mask along with cooling and drying the affected skin especially for people who use it for continued long hours per day.
Face masks have been widely and intensively used by healthcare workers, patients and all people around the world specially during a pandemic like COVID-19.
It has become very common that a person can wear a face mask for long hours each day especially healthcare workers who almost wear it 24/7.
During COVID-19 pandemic it has become obvious that although face masks can protect and save people's lives, there is a downside to them that they cause irritation of skin and causes the face to bruise and get hurt around the edges of the face mask, it also increases humidity and sweat under the mask, It has also been found that some sensitive skin gets acne and irritation around the chin because of lack of light exposure during the long hours of wearing the mask.
CBS News reported on Mar. 31, 2020 an article with a title “Exhausted doctors and nurses post images of their bruised faces after long shifts wearing protective gear” quoting that “Health care professionals on the front lines of the coronavirus battle are struggling against forces that are out of their control. Overcrowded hospitals, a lack of ventilators, the risk of getting infected themselves and the need for personal protective equipment (PPE) are just a few challenges these workers are facing.”. So, this shows how much wearing face masks for a long time can damage the face not just some bruises but also the effect of less blood circulation for the face in a consistent daily manner is a problem that needs to be addressed with all means possible.
During COVID-19 the previously stated news have become very common with the whole population not just healthcare workers, it has become necessary to wear the face masks for long hours while working, for example: grocery stores' workers, mail delivery services and all the workplaces that didn't closedown even during the pandemic to serve people's needs. And according to CDC regulations on the effective use of face masks is to wear them in a way that they fit snuggly against the size of your face and don't have gaps, this means that it will cause pressure and friction with the skin which are mostly the causes of getting skin problems in the long term.
Another concerning problem showed up during the summer when the heat started to increase and sweating under the face mask has become very common and intensive while it is not recommended to remove the mask every few minutes to dry off the sweat which could lead to more exposure to getting infected while doing that. The sweating problem can also cause the face mask itself to get wet very fast which makes it less or even not at all effective in infection prevention.
The invention of the face mask frame is targeting mainly the problem of the face suffering below the mask, so it helps soothe the skin and cool it down and dry the sweat under the skin without having people to remove the mask frequently and expose to infection.
The face mask frame is customizable bendable frame that acts as a frame to any type of viral protection or surgical face masks or any mask that has flexible material that have thin edges to attach to the frame. The frame has disposable attachments including tapes that can stick to the frame and sticks to the face instead of the face mask. These tapes contain soothing moisturizer gel that helps cool down the skin and helps in collagen generation and increase the blood circulation of the skin. Another type of the tapes are rechargeable massager tapes that get attached to the frame and vibrates and massages the skin to help relief the skin and the face muscles under the mask. the frame has customizable options to facilitate how people wear it according to their own preference including attaching ear loops or head loops or silicon tape.
The area of the frame that is under the face mask attached contains a couple of removable and replaceable attachments containing small rechargeable fan attachments to dry off sweat and decrease the heat under the mask, small rechargeable LED light therapy attachment to expose the skin to therapeutic light to decrease the potential of developing acne or inflammation and extra attachment sockets for any newly third party accessories to use and attach to face mask for example mic voice amplifier to help make the voice more clear and better heard while using the face mask.
The mask frame 101 could be made of woven cloth surrounding a strong kind of bendable metal strip so that it could be easily reshaped and attached to the face according to the user preference and the shape of the face mask that needs to be clipped to the said frame.
Face mask clip 105 is bendable plastic clip that holds the face mask edges to keep the mask snuggled completely around the frame as shown in
Two small-rounded plastic clips 107 attached to each side of the frame to attach either ear loop to hold the frame or head loop.
Face side soothing and messaging attachable tapes 102 as shown in detail in
The attachment parts that will get inside the attachment sockets are all having standard ending of plastic that is fitting inside the sockets while the other ending side could differ according to the type of the attachment and the feature it offers inside the mask under the condition that it doesn't irritate the face in any way.
The fan could be made of plastic material with micro motor that could be chargeable or designed with battery.
Since there might be more needs in the future for features within the mask to be added as attachments, extra sockets are installed to the frame to allow for more attachments for example: voice amplifier attachment to help better hear the person wearing the mask clearly and loud enough so that they don't have to remove the mask in any situation that could expose them to infection.