Can I buy frames online and have my optician fit prescription lenses?

Most opticians can fit prescription lenses into a frame you bring in, wherever you bought it. That is how every pair of eyeglasses from us becomes a pair you can wear: online we sell frames only, the frame comes to you by post, and the lenses are made and fitted afterwards.

We are opticians, and we do the fitting in our own shops. Bring the frame into Arlington or Dumfries and, once we have checked it suits your prescription, we will fit your lenses to it. Ring ahead so we can book the time and tell you the cost. If you are nowhere near us, take it to your own optician. Some charge a fitting fee or ask you to sign a form, because a frame can occasionally be damaged while lenses are cut and fitted, so it's worth calling ahead.

Eyeglass frames arrive with non-prescription demo lenses, or with none; each listing says which under Condition. Demo lenses hold the frame's shape in transit and aren't meant for wearing. Leave them in until the fitting: they give the optician the lens shape the frame was made for, and a frame sent back to us has to come with any demo lenses it was sent with.

Sunglasses arrive ready to wear, with their own tinted lenses. For prescription sunglasses, an optician replaces the sun lenses with prescription tinted ones. Ask us first: a strongly curved front limits which prescriptions will work in it.

• The frame, with its demo lenses still in if it came with them.
• An up-to-date prescription. The lenses are made to it, so bring the written copy rather than numbers from memory.
• Your pupillary distance (PD), the distance between your pupils. It places the optical centre of each lens in front of each eye. Not every prescription gives it; the optician can measure it.
• For progressive or bifocal lenses, the fitting height, which for bifocals is often called the segment height. It sets how high the lens design sits in relation to your eye, measured from the bottom of the lens. The optician measures it in person, with the frame on your face, usually after adjusting the frame to sit properly, because the number changes if the frame sits differently. That is why these lenses are best fitted in person.

Because an adjusted frame can't be returned, decide that you are keeping the frame before the appointment, not during it.

Prescription lenses start as round, uncut blanks. The optician, or the laboratory working for them, traces the shape of the frame's lens openings, or of the demo lenses, and cuts each blank to that outline. The cutting is called edging. Each lens is positioned from your PD, and for progressives from the fitting height as well, so the lens is centred on your eye rather than simply on the middle of the opening.

How the lens goes in depends on the frame. A full-rim frame holds it in a groove around the inside of the rim, and the lens edge is given a bevel that seats in that groove. A metal rim is usually opened at a small screw at its outer corner; acetate is warmed so it gives enough to take the lens, then settles around it. Rimless and semi-rimless frames need more work, described below.

Why the optician checks the frame first. Before a lens is cut, they will look the frame over: that it is straight and sound, that the hinges and screws are tight, and that the lens openings are the size and depth your prescription needs. Stronger prescriptions make thicker lens edges, and a shallow lens or a strongly curved front can rule out some lens designs. It is the optician who confirms, with your measurements, whether a frame suits your prescription. We can tell you what we know about a frame, but we can't promise that it will take a given prescription before that check.

A rimless frame has no rim to hold the lens. Each lens is usually drilled near the bridge and near the temples and fixed to the frame with small screws or push-fit bushings, so the lens itself becomes part of the frame's structure. A semi-rimless frame has a rim along the top only. The edge of the lens is cut with a fine groove, and a thin nylon cord running in that groove along the bottom holds the lens up against the rim.

Both are more particular work than a full rim, and not every optician offers drilling or grooving, so ask before you order. Both also leave the lens edge on show, which is why lens material matters more here: the optician may recommend a tougher material for drilled lenses, or a higher-index lens to keep a stronger prescription's edges thinner. Our rimless frames are gathered in rimless glasses.

• Stronger prescriptions make thicker lens edges. A smaller lens width and a full rim, especially in acetate, hide that thickness best.
• Progressive lenses need enough lens height. We list lens height on each frame where we have it. Many standard progressive designs ask for about 28mm or more, and shorter designs exist, so check with the optician making your lenses before choosing a shallow frame. See the frame size guide.
• Rimless and semi-rimless frames need lenses that are drilled or grooved. Check your optician offers it.
• Strongly curved sunglasses can limit which prescriptions will work in them.

Online, we sell frames only. We don't sell prescription lenses online, and we never sell progressive lenses online: they are made to a fitting height that the optician measures in person, with the frame on your face. Every order ships, free and insured within the United States.

In our Arlington and Dumfries shops we fit prescription lenses to a frame you bring in, including one you bought from us here. That lens work is done by Eye Rx, the practice behind this store, and the lenses are covered by its own terms rather than by our return policy. If you would rather use your own optician, take the frame to them.

Try the frame on the day it arrives. You have 7 days from delivery to request a return, and approved returns are refunded less a 15% restocking fee. The frame has to come back unworn, undamaged and unadjusted, with its case, cloth, packaging and any demo lenses, and without lenses fitted by anyone. Discounted frames and frames marked final sale can't be returned or refunded. If a frame arrives damaged or faulty, or isn't the one you ordered, tell us within 7 days of delivery, with photos, and we will arrange its return at our cost with no restocking fee; that applies to final-sale frames too.

So the order is: try it on, decide, then book the fitting. If you plan to use your own optician, ring them before you order rather than after, so the 7 days aren't spent looking for someone to take the frame.

The order of events matters. A frame on its own is not the qualifying expense; the finished pair of prescription glasses is. Pay for the frame with an ordinary card, keep our receipt, and claim it together with your optician's lens invoice once the lenses are in.

For an FSA there is a timing catch worth knowing: the expense is dated to the day the lenses are fitted, not the day you order. Buying a frame in December does not spend that year's balance if the fitting falls in January. Using FSA or HSA money for a frame

Send us the frame you're looking at and your question, and we'll tell you what we know about lenses for it.