Eye Care Information

After cleaning my eyeglasses today I noticed that one of my nosepads fell off. I was at work, but after looking around for a few minutes I saw the nosepad on the floor. It turns out the nosepad had cracked where it connects to the glasses. This was my most recently purchased eyeglasses from Zenni Optical. Each nosepad is one piece of rubber (or some similar material - maybe silicone) with a nub that fits into the eyeglasses and the screw goes through. I've never lost a nosepad before, but because this one was cracked, there was no way to put it back on.

I spent the rest of the day sans nosepad. It wasn't obvious to others, but it felt funny on my nose, and my glasses did tend to slide down a little more than usual. When I got home, I got my original pair of glasses from Zenni and hoped the nosepads would be interchangeable. While not an exact match, the old nosepad did attach to my new glasses.

The nosepad on this pair of glasses is held on with a small phillips screw. I should clarify - VERY small. Interestingly, I had an old eyeglass screw driver laying around, but that screwdriver had a standard head. Luckily, I also had a small phillips screwdriver which was barely able to work, as it was a bit big.

It was fairly straight forward to replace the nosepad. I carefully removed the screw from the new glasses and set it aside where I wouldn't lose it. I then had to remove the cracked piece of rubber/plastic that was inside the slot where the nosepad fits. I removed one nosepad from the old glasses. Interestingly, the old nosepad was not all rubber. The old nosepad had a metal insert in the middle that has a metal nub that goes into the slot on the eyeglasses and then the screw goes into that. I'm guessing the new part is slightly cheaper, which could be why it cracked. Luckily the old nosepad fit into the same slot on my new glasses and the same screw seems to be holding it in place.

Looking online, I couldn't easily locate a place to get a single pair of replacement nosepads for cheap. I did find a few places where you can get them for $5 or so, but when you consider the entire Zenni glasses are only $6.95, that isn't so cheap. It also seems like there are several different styles of nosepads available. Some are like what mine are, but there are also a lot of nosepads that are just stick-on pads. Those wouldn't have worked to replace mine as I have a little arm that connects the glasses to the nosepad. I'm guessing the stick-on nosepads are for glasses that don't have nosepads normally, but someone would want padding or something to help keep the glasses from sliding down.

There are also some nosepads that are slide-on, that must slide onto the arm on the glasses.

Checking out Zenni's website, it looks like they will provide replacement parts including nosepads and screws free of charge, in reasonable quantities. I'm going to contact them and see about getting a replacement nosepad. I'd like to get a matching nosepad, as this one doesn't quite match. I doubt anyone would notice, but I can tell when I look in the mirror. Also, it would be nice to have an extra spare or two, as I wouldn't be surprised if the other one cracks in the near future.

If anyone has suggestions on where to go for cheap replacement nosepads, please post in this thread.

Hello, I recently received a pair of reading glasses from Zenni Optical. I like them, but I had to replace the nose pads because they had a bad odor. They smelled like noxious chemicals. I have noticed this smell on other plastics, too. I found replacement nose pads at the optical store in Wal-Mart for $2. I also found a small pair included in an eyeglass repair kit at Dollar Tree. My husband could not detect any odor so this may not be an issue for many people. Thanks for all the info, Catslove

That's great to know that Walmart and Dollar Tree sell them so cheap. I did get my replacement nose pads from Zenni Optical without too much hassle, but if I needed them quickly, it would have been worth the $1-2 to get them at Walmart or Dollar Tree.

Thank you for sharing the info.