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Comment by jerkstate | Hacker News Reader

Seems weird that I can't easily order eyeglasses in whatever prescription I want. FDA, please fix that next.

I've never had issues ordering glasses from Zenni and I think Warby Parker too, you can just put in whatever values you want. Contact lenses on the other hand are regulated, I have to get those from overseas without a prescription.

Warby Parker definitely requires an at most year old prescription.

They won't let you punch in an expired prescription, let alone "whatever you want," but if you've bought a pair of glasses from them in the past, they'll let you buy another pair even if the prescription is now expired.

IIRC they basically try to chase up your eye doctor for you, and if your eye doctor doesn't respond within a certain timeframe, they have a greenlight to proceed with the sale according to a California law that was passed maybe 10 years ago. It's probably different in different states - maybe in some states you can literally just type in whatever you want.

My mistake, I do have a super old prescription in Warby Parker.

Zenni does let you buy "whatever you want".

Maybe their policy has changed, but I bought a pair last year and haven't had a prescription in 4 years. It is possible I uploaded that prescription when I first bought glasses from them rather than just entering the values I wanted, but it's for sure years expired.

Not true

For contacts the FTC contacts rule requires certain prescription verification rules.

I'm not aware of anything on the federal level that requires a patient have a valid prescription for eyeglasses. (I've looked, but I've not found any such requirement.)

The restrictions appear to be on the state level. Some states prohibit dispensing prescription glasses without a prescription. Other states appear to only regulate what a prescription must contain, and how long it lasts, with no apparent laws around dispensing. (For example South Dakota explicitly does not regulate opticians, so unless there is some federal law I have missed, they can produce and dispense any type of glasses to anyone who asks, but cannot do so for contacts due to the FTC contacts rules.)

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