Annie brought up this topic on the Little Four Eyes facebook group. -Ann Z
How many of us Little Four Eyes parents have had to attempt to fix glasses until new ones come in? We just ordered Aubrie’s new prescription & her backup pair broke. She’s rocking some serious duct-tape on her temple until the new ones, and the backup replacements come in. Usually we ALWAYS have backups, but her 3rd pair are just way too small and she said they hurt. Anyway, I figure I can’t be alone. I felt absolutely terrible sending her to a library program around all her peers in duct-tape, but hey what can you do until they have your new ones ready? I’m just glad she’s 3 and doesn’t realize she’s rocking the duct-tape…if it happens again in Jr. High I’ll be doomed!
I know for a fact that Annie isn’t alone in trying home repairs. So, what kind of glasses repairs have you had to do? Duct tape? Rubber bands? Anything work particularly well – or not well at all? We’ve only tried to repair Zoe’s glasses once, and that was pretty close to a failure (she refused to wear them with the electric-taped ear piece). Thankfully her new glasses arrived the next day!
behold the poorly repaired frames!
For Little Eyes 
I had to do quite a number of repairs thus far on Nicky’s glasses (glasses, plural…he’s been through a number of pairs). I think we’ve managed to avoid several trips to the opticians, and also salvaged a few pairs of glasses by either fixing, unbending, or salvaging parts from old pairs.
N’s only worn one style since he started wearing glasses (Disney – metal frames) so we’ve accumulated a bunch of spare parts.
So far:
-unbent the bent. Usually near the temple – this seems to happen most often, as he’s gotten older, he’s gotten more active and consequently more accident prone.
-replaced/adjusted cable temples. Either by unscrewing and using parts from another pair, or lengthening/shortening the curl by heating and bending.
-replaced nosepads
-replaced popped/lost lenses… gets harder to keep track of as the RX changes..
Eventually they give out..either a joint gives, or some part snaps that can’t be handled at home, but I like to think we saved both time and dollars by fixing what we can.
Though, when in doubt..duct tape does the trick.
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I have always been told to heat the glasses up with a hair dryer before trying to bend them back in place. It seems to help when bending at the temple with pliers or bending the ear pieces. I accidently broke a pair from Walmart once trying to bend them back in place. Glasses for kids are covered for 4 breakages in a year from Walmart but interestingly only if the child breaks them not the parent.
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Hah! That’s a pretty interesting note about the warranty at Walmart!
Good tip on the hair dryer. I know when we’ve taken Zoe’s glasses to Costco, they have a warming machine-thingy (that’s the technical term 🙂 ) to heat up the glasses before they try to bend them. When I first got my glasses in elementary school, I think I broke the temples three or four times because I kept trying to bend them lots of different ways.
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Did anyone have a problem with the paint chipping off glasses? I had that problem with one pair of my daughter’s glasses.
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We had that problem with Aubrie’s last pair, but it was almost like it was scuffed off in places…not really peeling. However, she went through 4 frames in a year so we’d usually get a new pair before it got too bad.
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Does anyone have a problem with dirt and grime collecting in between the lenses and frames. Has anyone figured out a way to successfully clean them without removing the lenses?
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I would venture to say that the lenses don’t fit well into your frame if you have a lot of dirt and grime collecting there. I have some on my own glasses from time to time and also on my daughter’s but it simply washes away when I rinse them. If you cannot do that, I would take them to the glasses store and ask them to check the fit of the lens. It should be tight enough to where no dirt can get in between the frame and the lens.
On another note, we often do our own repairs, but I have broken a pair of cable temples this way before. Thankfully, our glasses place has an unconditional warranty…. so even if the parent breaks it, it is replaced for free. 🙂
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