Repairing Eyeglasses

Steve Mower - August 2018


TIP -Get your repair kit ready and organized before you break your reading glasses.

Tips on how to take care of your eyeglasses

Temporarily repair broken eyeglasses, do basic adjustments, what not to do's, and etceteras...

Basic Care and Maintenance

I know that it can be very frustrating to have issues with your eyeglasses. I have been an Optician for over 25 years. I have heard it all, believe me. Here are some tips that I think you will find usefull-

Eyeglass Cases

When not on your face they should be in a case.< That's a period indicating "enough said".

Cleaners and Cloths


I recommend a good micro-fibre cloth and a good eyeglass cleaning solution. You can use the cloth in a pinch to remove fingerprints. For a more thourough cleaning, the cleaning solution with a soft piece of tissue works the best.

You can wash the cleaning cloth in the laundry. Do not use fabric softener as it leaves a residue on the cloth that reduces its effectiveness. 

What not to use

No harsh products like Windex or anything with strong chemicals. If you get something like say, paint on your eyeglass lenses, you can use alcohol. (Ethyl, or Isopropyl, available at your local drug store) but I do not recommend that you use alcohol all the time as it can discolor the frame and can wear down lens coatings.

Your  supposedly clean T-shirt. Just because you grabbed your favorite T-shirt out of the laundry this morning does not mean that it is good to use for cleaning your specs! Do you know what dust is? Dust is what is left over after the universe has spent 14 billion years grinding reality down to very small bits. These little bits could be made of really sharp diamond chunks for all you know! Think, people!

Weird Things to be Aware Of...

dilitheum-eyewear.jpg-"Aggh! Captn K! Wha hav ya doon to yer new dilitheum readers ya bampot?!"

Certain activities like, cooking, painting, carpentry, riding sandworms, etc... can effect your eyeglasses. For example, if you cook with oil and the oil splatters, it usually will drop down from above and can get on your lenses. Solution- wear a billed hat, like a baseball cap when you cooking with high heat oil. For activities like painting or sanding, where you get lots of paint spray or abrasive dust, use safety goggles over your eyeglasses. (But, you already knew that, right?)

Basic Adjustments that you can do-

(In my experience, people adjust their own glasses, in the exact opposite way they should be adjusted. For goodness sakes, just go to your local Optician and have an expert do it and tip them well!)

If you must adjust your glasses yourself, here are a few tips-

Be gentle.

To tighten or loosen the temples, gently increase or decrease the bend at the temple end.

To raise or lower the glasses on your face- (If you have nose pads.) Gently push in or pull apart the nose pads in very small degrees. Just a little bit at a time, please. Getting the nose pads angled to fit your peculiar nose will require a special tool at your local Opticians shop.

If your glasses are crooked on your face, gently push down on the temple where it connects to the frame front, on the side that fits low on you. It probably wont work. Go to an Optician!!!

You can find eyeglass repair kits at your local drug store or Optician's shop. These are emergency repair kits. The screws included are usually too long. These kits are great to do emergency repairs and allow you to get to the Opticians shop where they can repair them properly.

Basic Repairs that you can do-

rge-before1.jpg --"It worked! I hope this holds until I can pay off my student loans and can afford vision insurance!"

Say your temple comes off because the screw that holds it on has come out- here are a couple of good, temporary, quick fixes-

The Tooth-Pick Solution- Align the temple hinge holes with the frame front holes, and then- Take a wooden tooth-pick and push it into the holes until it stops. Break or clip off the excess. You should be ready to go.

The Twist-tie Solution- Take a twist-tie from a bag  of bread or some such thing, and strip the paper off of it. Use the remaining thin wire to lace through the end piece holes and hinge holes until the temple feels fairly secure.

Tape- If it works, do it.

Super Glue- 99% of the time, super glue will not work, and will probably ruin your frame and/or lenses. Do. Not. Use. Super. Glue.


Do not!-

-Allow young children to get a hold of your eyeglasses.

-Allow dogs, cats, or pet monkeys to get a hold of your eyeglasses. Trust me on the monkeys one!

-Put your eyeglasses in your dishwasher. (Yes, I have seen this)

-Take your eyeglasses into the ocean, (or surfing, water skiing, parachuting, sailing, mixed martial arts fighting, cave diving.....) without a strap to hold them on. Prefferably a strap that can float.

Good quality eyeglass frames and lenses will last a very long time if you use common sense and take care of them properly. Most folks only have one pair of eyeglasses that they use all of the time, every day, all year-round. Consider that for a moment. Do you have one pair of shoes that you wear exclusively all the time? One shirt? Just sayin...

If you have old eyeglasses and don't know what to do with them, we have ideas for you...see this article-

Recycling Eyeglasses and Fun Projects You Can Do If You Are The Type Of Person That Has An Enormous Amount Of Extra Time On Your Hands-


