Giant Nasolabial Folds Causing Mask Leakage

[Ryan Neely]

My wife/buddy has some pretty deep nasolabial folds (these are the lines between your nose and mouth that form creases when you smile). She woild say she has fat cheeks, but that isn't it. She simply has very deep creases here.

It's so bad that she spends a majority of any particular dive clearing a partially flooded mask.

It's the same kind of effect you'd get if you were smiling underwater except she's not smiling. She keeps her face so relaxed that she then struggles to keep her regulator in her mouth.

Anyone struggle with this? Have any suggestions? I have a full beard and exhale only through my nose. That keeps my mask clear. I tried to over this advice, but apparently it doesn't help.

 

[diversteve]

Mask Seal

A good soft-skirt silicone mask might help also. One of the better mask makers has one called diamond seal or something like that - it's liquid silicone in a little bladder on the edges of the mask. Don't recall if that included the bottom edge though. IIRC it was either Cressi or Tusa

One of my dive buddies has a pretty deep indent in his upper lip - he carries Vaseline in a little tube and squirts a little on his mask skirt pre-dive b4 every dive.

 

[Marie13]

Deep smile lines were my problem also. Went through 16 masks before the 17th was the charm.

A lot of masks have a very short skirt under the nose. A longer one is needed. Have a look at the ScubaPro Synergy 2 Twin TruFit mask. The mask I have is now discontinued, but this one is the replacement model.

Once she finds a mask that fits, buy muitples of it. I think I have 4-5.

https://scubapro.johnsonoutdoors.com/masks/masks/synergy-2-twin-dive-mask