Is it legal to sell eyeglasses without a current prescription?
<p>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 &quot;prescription expired,&quot; and it would be illegal for them to sell me a replacement unless I either presented an &quot;unexpired&quot; prescription or else had the optometrist who wrote the original prescription extend its expiration date.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>What, if any, legal or regulatory restrictions apply to the sale of eyeglasses to individuals without a &quot;current prescription,&quot; or any third-party &quot;prescription&quot; at all?</strong></p>
<p>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 &quot;prescribed&quot; that specification for my purchase?</p>

<p>In Washington state, where you are not, <a href="https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=18.195&amp;full=true" rel="nofollow noreferrer">you must have a current prescription</a>, 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 <a href="https://app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=246-824&amp;full=true&amp;pdf=true" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>, but oddly there don't seem to be any regulations requiring a dispensing optician to only use unexpired prescriptions. The definition of &quot;dispensing optician&quot; could be read to mean that they can only follow the prescription.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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 <em>on written
prescriptions from physicians or optometrists, and in accordance with
such prescriptions</em>, 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</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/049/chapter23/s23.72.html&amp;d=" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Pennsylvania regulations</a> state &quot;The expiration date of a spectacle prescription may not be greater than 2 years&quot;; there again doesn't seem to be any explicit rule / statute prohibiting a dispensing optician from using an expired prescription.</p>

united-states medical regulations is-x-legal