In addition to helping your vision, glasses can give your face an added dimension of personality. However, if you have an older pair of glasses, or ones that seemed right in the store but don’t look like they fit your face shape well at home, you may want to adjust them for a better fit. Fortunately, many of these adjustments are simple fixes that require no special tools and take only a few minutes. 

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4 ways to adjust your glasses at home

Let’s dive into some of the ways you can fix your glasses, depending on the kind of problem you’re encountering and the material of your frames. These tips come straight from glasses manufacturers and vendors like Warby Parker, Zenni and FramesDirect. 

If your glasses always slide down 

When your glasses slide down, it can impede your ability to see well and can feel uncomfortable. Your specs may even tend to fall off over time. Thankfully, tightening them is a pretty easy fix. For glasses with a wire frame, you can use your thumbs to carefully push the nose pads together for a more snug fit. This can be a trial and error process that takes a few times before you have a fit that’s both functional and comfortable for you.

Plastic frames involve a little more work. Start by getting a warm bowl of water and soaking your glasses for around a minute. Doing this will help soften the temple tips, allowing you to apply inward and downward pressure on them so that when you place them behind your ears, they’re less susceptible to sliding down your nose. 

If your glasses are too tight 

Another common problem is when the glasses are too tight, creating a squeezing sensation that’s less than pleasant to endure. When this happens, use your thumbs to stretch the nose pads out on wire frame glasses. Doing this can create enough wiggle room that they sit on your face comfortably without the pinch. 

Another trick for plastic frames is to soak your glasses in a warm (not hot) bowl of water for 30-60 seconds. After soaking them, apply upward and outward pressure on the temple ends so they rest more comfortably on your ears while not constricting your face. 

If your glasses are crooked 

Sometimes, oopsies happen where you drop your glasses, a pet mistakens them for a chew toy, or someone sits on them, making them appear crooked. This is a relatively simple fix that will depend on the orientation of said crookedness. 

When you put your glasses on, if the left side is higher than the right, you can fix it by carefully bending the right temple arm down at the hinge or where it bends to fit on your ear (where it’s adjustable). If the right side is crooked, you can fix it by doing the same to the left arm. You might have to do this several times to achieve the look and comfort you need. 

If your glasses pinch your nose 

It’s never fun to have your glasses resemble someone honking your nose. And if you wear a mask, having glasses fitting too tight can result in foggy lenses. If this happens to you, you can simply widen the nose pads until they’re comfortably secure. With plastic glasses, the process is the same as for loosening them in general: After soaking the frames, adjust the temple ends upward and outward.

Fixing common eyeglass issues should only take a few minutes. However, if you have an older prescription, or the glasses still don’t seem comfortable after your own adjustments, you’ll want to visit your optometrist, who can make tweaks on their end for a more comfortable fit.