Keep a copy of your prescription so you can buy glasses online for cheap.

Glasses fog up when you go from cold to warm. Clean the lens with soap water and wipe them off to keep them from fogging up. Or use good ol fashioned spit.

Check the screws and whatnot on the hinges periodically. Sometimes they go loose. Depends on the glasses.

They help keep rain and midges away from your eyes, so that’s nice.

The nosepads get dirty too, so wipe em down every now and then.

If you play sports and you don’t care for contacts, or if you swim, think about getting prescription googles. 100% worth it.

Take them off on the rollercoasters. Put them in your pocket or something.

Buy a spare pair in case of emergencies. This is equivalent to not having a plunger when you need one. You’re gonna regret it!

If they get bent somehow and don’t sit properly on your face anymore, try to avoid bending them back yourself. It’s better to have a professional do it. They know where the stress points are and how to do it right without breaking them!

Be careful when cleaning them, otherwise you’ll get scratches. Even expensive ones. Don’t use those wipes with alcohol, it’ll damage them. Either use soap and water with a clean cloth or sponge and dry by dabbing with kitchen paper. You could also get an ultrasound cleaner, which is like a little bath you just put them in. Don’t wipe them when they are not wet.

If you use a computer a lot, get your optometrist to give you a distance prescription, and a “computer” prescription (which would probably be a few inches past arms’ reach). Then buy distance glasses and computer glasses. This is much better - and cheaper - than trying to do the same thing with bifocals.

For frames, I much prefer plastic. The extended nose pieces on metal frames tend to become uncomfortable, where plastic frames will just set of the bridge of the nose. Same goes for the earpieces; thin ones on metal frames can cause discomfort with extended use. Plastic frames aren’t going to have screws that hold the lenses in, nothing to get loose or lost or stripped out and unworkable.

People in this thread are way more cautious with their glasses than I am. I clean them on my shirt frequently! They do scratch slightly over time, but there’s a 0% chance I’ll consistently remember a cleaning wipe every time I’d need one. I have 0 scratches that I can notice, and my current pair is a bit over a year old. I tend to get a new pair every year or 2, and I highly recommend Zenni! I’ve been buying from them for like 10 years now, 0 issues.

Anti-reflection coating is fantastic, so is the anti-oil coating. Anti-fog coating sucks and it’s worth it (it needs to be “activated” regularly with a special cloth??). The blue light blocking lenses don’t really seem to do anything, but they don’t hurt either.

Clip-on sunglasses suck, and bad ones can damage your frame or glasses. Get some cheap prescription sunglasses. Get a hard clamshell case for it that will also fit your regular glasses for easy swapping.

Also, replace nosepads every year or so and clean the gunk that collects behind it in the nosepad holder leg thingy. That thing is a gunk magnet.

Make sure to get a pair that actually fit your head. They shouldn’t squeeze your temples, the ear bends should actually be on your ears, they shouldn’t slide around on your nose.

I wore glasses for like twenty years before I finally realized the source of every single problem I had with them was actually me picking the wrong frames and not inherent issues to glasses. Now that I’m aware of it I notice other people wearing ill-fitting glasses all the time.

If you have to wear them constantly, like I do, remember to wipe them down with a gentle soap periodically. The spaces between the frames and the lenses will collect gunk that makes you think something is in your eyes and drive you crazy.

@paris mentioned one online retailer already but to give you another option: I’ve been using Zenni for my prescriptions for a few years now and have been happy with them.

Sometimes a vendor or optometrist isn’t contracted with your vision plan, but you can often submit for reimbursement; some health insurances (since eye health isn’t health, somehow) will also allow you to submit for reimbursement so check your policies, if applicable.

I tend to order two non-tinted pairs and a pair of prescription sunglasses when my Rx changes noticeably - one pair is made of safety polycarbonate (shatter/puncture resistant) and the other is more standard, but it’s nice to have options to choose from. As you go through them, please make sure to donate your old prescriptions! I’ve sent most of mine to the Peninsula Special Interest Lions Club in CA but there are a number of charities that will send your old lenses and frames to people who need them

If you work in an environment where you go from cold to warm and they fog up often, you can get antifog treatments that don’t last forever but do help keep them clear.

Buying a few pairs from cheap online sellers like goggles4u can save you a bunch of money. The antiglare coatings are applied to almost every lens already so don’t bother paying for more coatings.

If you can afford it, get another pair with ‘transition’ lenses that get darker in direct sunlight. Regular glasses are going to make sunlight more powerful; I used to get headaches every summer unless I wore a hat all the time. It’s easier to just have the one set that get darker than to fool around with prescription sunglasses and noraml ones.

There are swimming goggles with prescription lenses available. They cost about the same as normal goggles, and make sports much more enjoyable.

If your prescription is mild, you may be able to get away with using reading glasses from the drug store. Most of the bigger places have a rack where you can try them on.

Pets often enjoy chewing on the glasses, so be sure you put them in a safe place every night.

Keeping a few of those little lens cleaning cloths in convenient places is about all I can think of. They launder fine too, if you notice any become less effective at removing smears.

If you ever need a new prescription, they should be able to put the new lenses in your current frame. Similarly, if your frame ever gets broken but your lenses are undamaged, they can pop them in a new frame. That said, keeping old glasses as spares is useful, and it can be fun to have new frames.

https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-glasses-lenscrafters-luxottica-monopoly-20190305-story.html

People have mostly covered the important stuff, so something less important is: if you are liable to take them off with any regularity, you’re gonna lose them on top of your head! I keep mine on pretty much any time I’m awake and not doing something specifically anti glasses (think swimming), but I know especially people who are farsighted while watching TV or nearsighed while reading will do this.

Lenses scratch over time, plastic ones faster than glass ones. The coatings are the first to go, so you can use that as a warning sign to get a new pair ASAP. Try to keep them in a microfiber lined case or pouch, not just a random shirt pocket.

If you start seeing “starburst” effects around lights at night, it means the lenses most likely are scratched.

Only clean them with a microfiber cloth, and never dry. At the very least, breathe on them to have some moisture. Blow on them first to get rid of any dust that would come off easily. Avoid rubbing dust into them, even with the microfiber cloth. It’s best to use a single motion from one edge to the other, ideally while pulling the cloth away so dirty parts don’t get dragged along the lens (takes a bit of practice). Shake the cloth off after each pass. Goes without saying, but clean hands are required to keep the cloth clean.

If you really have to, you can put them under running water, but beware of corrosion in any metal parts (frame, hinges, screws). Shake off leftover water, then clean with a microfiber cloth. DO NOT use a hairdryer on plastic lenses or frames. Depending on the water hardness, it might leave mineral deposits behind, so it’s generally better to avoid it. Rain is usually fine, unless you get into acid rain, or dusty rain.

Chromatic aberration is inevitable, so no point in fighting it or panicking, it just comes with the territory. With a good pair of glasses, whatever you’re looking at straight ahead, should look fine though. If it doesn’t, consider getting back to your optician for a better fit.

Random reflections and glare are a thing too. There are coatings to mitigate them, which makes sense for like driving at night, but you might get by without them, YMMV.

Thanks for asking this!

I’ve been using glasses for over two thirds of my life and through this thread I’ve now discovered the existence of ultrasonic cleaners.

Only advice I have is if you’re sensitive to bright lights or have sensory issues.

As someone with pretty significant sensory issues, transition lenses have made my life a lot easier, especially as they got better over time (used to take much longer to go back to normal, but now it’s pretty quick).

That said, it’s like Marmite. People either love it or hate it. And a lot of people hate it.

Oh, and headphones. If you use headphones a lot, there may sometimes be issues with fit and/or seal.

Things that aren’t too tight for people who don’t wear glasses can cause a major headache for people that do. While the best option is to try before buying, sometimes you don’t get to try then long enough and discover later when you’re trying to listen to music. Check reviews which will often mention whether or not people with glasses find them comfy first.

Sometimes it also breaks the seal a tiny bit and could cause the sound to be a smidge less bassy, although I’ve never actually experienced anything particularly significant when it comes to that myself.