Abstract The facemask is a personal protective equipment which is used to prevent the droplet or aerosol spread. Due to the pandemic spread like SARS, COVID-19 the mask is recommended to be worn by all the people to prevent the infection. It is one of the non-pharmaceutical ways of prevention, it helps in controlling the spread but not in complete eradication of the disease.This is a widely used way of prevention, which is cheap, non-invasive and has capacity to reduce the mortality rate due to respiratory infection. The major problem associated with these equipment are, they are commonly misused and they go out of stock even before the health care sector receives these equipment. So proper selection of masks is required to prevent the infection and also to reduce the demand of masks in the health sector. The aim of this review is to understand the importance of masks and needs of the personal protective equipment during the onset of any pandemic conditions. A systematic search strategy was done and the articles were found using keywords. Literature was taken from databases like PubMed and Google Scholar. The articles which discussed face masks were included and other articles which had the different types, advantages and disadvantages were also included. The review summarises the needs and the urge to use a face mask at the onset of pandemic condition. Selection of proper mask is emphasised to reduce the demand of masks.