Do your new glasses slide down your nose, or feel loose or a bit uncomfortable? Eyeglasses don’t always fit perfectly straight out of the box, but luckily, it’s easy and quick to adjust them to suit you.
Depending on the type of frame that you might have, it’s important to remember that adjusting eyeglass frames is best done by a licensed optician, as they are familiar with the techniques and have a “feel” for bending frame materials.
If there’s not a local optical store available near you, there are a few things you can do to adapt the fit of your glasses at home.
Here, we’ll address your questions around adjusting tightness on temples, glasses height, and crooked glasses. So, read on!
How to adjust tightness on temples
Your glasses shouldn’t feel too tight or loose. From the temple arms to tips, they should sit comfortably behind your ears to avoid discomfort when you’re wearing them for long periods of time.
You can easily adjust this by using gentle, steady pressure to wrap the frames more tightly around your face. You’ll need to heat up the glasses temples by immersing them in warm water.
Hot water can damage the coating of the lenses, so ensure the water is only warm and keep the stream of water away from the lenses.
Do not use a hair dryer to warm the frames – this could damage both the frames and lenses.
How to tighten or loosen temples:
1. Run the temple under warm water for 20-30 seconds to soften the plastic or metal.
2. To tighten the temple: Bend the end of the temple downwards while grasping the temple at the bend.
3. To loosen the temple: Bend the end of the temple upwards.
Ideally, the temples should bend at about 45 degrees starting just behind your ear. If the bend in the temple starts before your ear, your temples will need to be loosened.
How to adjust the height of your frames
When you receive your glasses, your frames can be adjusted to sit higher or lower slightly to better align your pupil with the optical center of your lens.
Your prescription must be aligned with your eyes in order to work properly. If your glasses are not the right height, you can fix them by adjusting the nose pads or temples.
5 steps to adjust glasses height with plastic frames
If your plastic glasses frames are sitting lower on your nose than desired, it might be that the temples are too wide. If they’re sitting too high on your nose, it could be that the temples are too narrow.
To raise or lower your frames:
1. Heat both temples by soaking them in warm water for 30-60 seconds.
2. To raise them, carefully bend them inwards until you feel a snug fit when you put them on.
3. To lower them, carefully bend them outwards until they’re at the desired height.
4. Repeat on the other side until you’ve formed it to the way you like.
5. Rinse off with cold water when you’re done.
6 steps to adjust glasses height with metal frames
If your metal eyeglasses frames are sitting lower on your nose than desired, it might be that the nose pads are wide.
Metal frames can be raised by gently closing the nose pads together with your thumb and forefinger. Use gentle, steady pressure and only move each pad a millimeter at a time, trying the frame on again between each adjustment.
1. Grab the metal part of the temple (and not the padded part).
2. Gently pinch one nose pad arm between your thumb and forefinger. Alternatively, you can use a needle-nose plier for adjustment.
3. Repeat on the other side to effectively bring the nose pads closer together.
4. The closer these pads are together, the higher the frames will sit.
5. If your metal frames are sitting too high on your nose, lower them by slightly pushing the nose pads apart.
6. The bridge should sit above the skin of your nose and just touch when you wrinkle your nose.
Your local optician has special pliers designed specifically for adjusting nose pad arms – you may wish to consult them for nose pad arm adjustments.
If you have a flat nose bridge, you will want the nose pad arms quite far away from the frames. Use a rocking motion to first pull the top of the pad arm farther from the frame front, then the bottom. You can check that the pad arms are the same distance from the frame by viewing them directly from the top and bottom.
Too far away from your eyes
Your frames and lenses should ideally sit as close to your eyes as possible – this is especially true for progressive lens wearers. Ideally, your frames should be as close as you can get them without touching your eyelashes.
1. To bring the frames closer to your eyes, move the nose pad arms closer to the frames.
2. To move the lenses away from your eyes, pull the nose pads away from the frames.
How to adjust crooked glasses
If your glasses are crooked, it might be one side is higher than the other. Place your glasses on a flat surface and observe if both the temples are touching the table.
1. Heat the temple that is not touching by immersing it in warm water for 30-60 seconds.
2. If the left side is higher than the right, bend the right temple tip down using slow and steady pressure.
3. If the right side is higher than the left, slowly and steadily bend the left temple tip down.
Take it to the pro: Visit your optician for an optimal glasses adjustment
Whenever possible, get your eyeglasses adjusted by an eye care professional – especially if your frames are made of sturdy materials such as titanium or if they’re especially delicate, such as rimless or semi-rimless.
We recommend visiting a professional optician every three months for a “tune-up” to have your frames tightened up a bit and all screws checked for security. This is usually about a five-minute process and a great way to extend the life of your frames.
