Adjusting your Glasses & Sunglasses

Normally when you buy a new pair of glasses or sunglasses they will require some adjustment to ensure a perfect fit. Additionally, you may find that an existing pair of glasses become loose or misaligned due to the stress and strain of normal day to day wear. In this handy guide, we'll show you how to adjust the arms and nose pads on your frames without any specialist equipment. All you need is a hair dryer, your glasses and a little time.

Glasses loose on face, or sitting crooked?

Make adjustments to the arms

Problem: Glasses are loose

If your glasses are loose you will need to heat up the frame a little and bend the arms in towards each other at or around the area of the bend by your ear.

Problem: Glasses are crooked

If your glasses are crooked (lens sitting higher on one side) you will need to heat up the frame a little and bend the arms downwards on the lowest side. You should do this at the hinge or the bend by the ear where the frame is most adjustable.

Video Guide: Adjusting arms - Top tips

1). Use a hair dryer to carefully heat up the arms to make them a little easier to bend.

2). Make sure to support the frames as you carefully bend them.

3). Don't force the frame to bend.

4). If you contain the heat by holding the frames inside a bowl or container as you heat, it will help.

5). Don't hold the hair dryer for too long in one place on the frame.

If you don't have a hair dryer handy, you can also heat the frame up using a bowl of hot water.

What frames can and cannot be adjusted

Some frames will be resistant to being adjusted, these include titanium, memory metal or memory plastic frames.

*While glasses are strong, we recommend not to use excessive force while trying to bend the arms.

Glasses sitting too low, or pinching the nose?

Make adjustments to the nose pads

Problem: Glasses are sitting too low

Simply use your thumb and finger to adjust the nose pads towards your nose until you find a comfortable fit. You may need to do this if you find your bifocal segments of distance section of a progressive lenses is too low, or the lenses are sitting too close to your eyes and lashes.

Problem: Glasses are pinching the nose

Simply use your thumb and finger to adjust the nose pads away from your nose until you find a comfortable fit. You may need to do this if you find your bifocal segments of distance section of a progressive lenses is too high, or the distance to the lenses is too great.

Video Guide: Adjusting nose pads - Top tips

1). Hold the frame securely

2). With a finger and thumb, move the nose pads to fit your nose bridge.

3). Try the glasses after adjustment then make any final adjustments to suit.

Not confident with adjusting your glasses?

No problem, you can take your glasses to your local optician and ask them to make any adjustments to give you a better fit, this should be a free of charge service. If you are in or near Westgate on Sea, we can do this for you in our store.