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I lost a pair of eyeglasses and contacted the store from which I bought them asking if they could sell me an identical replacement. A clerk there said that they can't because my "prescription expired," and it would be illegal for them to sell me a replacement unless I either presented an "unexpired" prescription or else had the optometrist who wrote the original prescription extend its expiration date.

The clerk claimed that the sale of prescription eyeglasses is regulated in the same way as the sale of prescription drugs. I can't find any law or regulation supporting this claim.

What, if any, legal or regulatory restrictions apply to the sale of eyeglasses to individuals without a "current prescription," or any third-party "prescription" at all?

E.g., if I want to buy a pair of eyeglasses with lenses ground to +1.25 | -1.00x180, does the seller face any adverse consequences for selling me those based only on my specification, and no evidence that any optometrist has "prescribed" that specification for my purchase?

feetwet
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In Washington state, where you are not, you must have a current prescription, and that prescription must be valid for at least two years unless the patient's ocular health does not warrant 2 years. The regulations on dispensing opticians are here, but oddly there don't seem to be any regulations requiring a dispensing optician to only use unexpired prescriptions. The definition of "dispensing optician" could be read to mean that they can only follow the prescription.

A dispensing optician is a person who prepares duplications of, or prepares and dispenses lenses, spectacles, eyeglasses and/or appurtenances thereto to the intended wearers thereof on written prescriptions from physicians or optometrists, and in accordance with such prescriptions, measures, adapts, adjusts and fabricates such lenses, spectacles, eyeglasses and/or appurtenances thereto to the human face for the aid or correction of visual or ocular anomalies of the human eye

Pennsylvania regulations state "The expiration date of a spectacle prescription may not be greater than 2 years"; there again doesn't seem to be any explicit rule / statute prohibiting a dispensing optician from using an expired prescription.

user6726
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This is yet another form of Guild Protection, in this case for eye doctors. Almost every state has regulations or laws that make it unlawful to sell glasses to someone without a current (less than one year) prescription. It's not for any good reason other than keeping eye doctors employed.

Tiger Guy
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