Has anyone had the experience of a parent with dementia needing new glasses? I don’t think she would be capable responding appropriately.

I would just get the prescription from the place where she had her last ones done, and use that one.

If that’s not possible, you can borrow the old lenses from her, and the optometrist can use a machine to “read” her old lenses and figure out the prescription.

When Mom ran her glasses over with her wheelchair, I called the eye doc and had him make her a new pair based off the old prescription, after I picked out the new frames. I even told her Medicare covered the ridiculous cost because she'd have freaked out knowing SHE had to shell out so much money for a new pair of glasses she "had no idea" how got broken. Get crafty.

If only the frames are broken, you should be able to take the surviving lenses to any eyeglass shop to be refitted into new frames. Or ask her prescribing doctor to have new ones made, using the same prescription.

This clearly won’t work in every case. My dad had macular degeneration and was overdue for new glasses. I had finally gotten my folks into assisted living and THEY WERE LOSING EVERYTHING. Remotes, wallets, glasses, you name it.

I keep readers in my pocket, two times magnification. So just for the hell of it I put them On dad. Held up two fingers. He saw it. What’s this picture? He nailed it. So I bought about six pairs of drug store reading glasses and doled them out as he lost them. Or, drag a 90 year old guy with dementia around town for appointments for glasses he’s gonna lose in twenty minutes.

I would just take the glasses to an optometrist who can duplicate them.

All you need is her prescription. Then you can get her frames and lenses anywhere. You could see if she can still get the same frames and just put the lenses back in.

My nephew was 8 months old when he got his first pair of glasses. I asked the doctor how he knew the strength my nephew needed. He said by how the light refracs off the eye.

As dementia advances in their journey you will discover what is worth doing vs what makes no difference. My hub has a tbi with eye damage. He is not able to do the eye exams at all due to now advancing dementia. His glasses have a special prism for double vision and he loses them frequently by laying them down everywhere and anywhere. Because of this we actually painted the sides with pink nail polish so they all know they are his. The staff is wonderful finding them and when he pushed out the lens they even found that and we superglued it back in. I talked to our eye dr and she made him an extra pair that I keep in my car if need arises. She said no further eye exams because he is cognitive in a 2-3 yo level and doesn’t know pics colors letters or numbers. As a nurse I acknowledge where we are in the journey and are not doing things that will not change this. He is happy nourished and well cared for and at this stage that’s the best I can hope for. He is only 69 and we had plans for retirement inc travel that for him will never be. It sucks . I take it a day at a time and try to make small memories out of what’s left.

If she only broke the frames, call the place where she got the glasses and ask them to order the exact same frames. They should have that info in their records. They can then put the lenses in the new frames and you're good to go.

We took my Mom to an optometrist. It was a very confusing experience for her. She could not understand what the optometrist was asking her to do. The optometrist ended up losing his patience with her. She started crying. We didn't realize her dementia had progressed that much. Very upsetting experience all around. Makes me sad that we put her through that. We were so naive, just learning, day by day, how to help her. Trial and error. Knowing what I know now, I wish I had found this forum years ago.

Yes. I always took my husband (he had frontotemporal degeneration) to the optometrist we'd used for about 15 years. They had an optometrist come to his nursing home, but frankly he was pretty useless. Our optometrist switched him to the optometrist who specialized in children. She used the exam format she used for young children who couldn't read yet. Instead of letters to read, there were shapes and colors. The optometrist asked my husband to point to the row he could see best. There's also a lot they can tell by just using their instrumentation. And they'd let me go into the exam room with my husband. When they priced glasses for my husband, even though I had him on my vision insurance plan, I was pretty sure they'd cost less at Costco. She that they'd give me a quote, but if Costco was less, go ahead and buy them there. She told me she was a single mother with one child in college, starting college next year, and another one in high school. She said if she didn't get great discounts already from their practice (all their employees got them, not just the optometrists), that's exactly what she'd do for her glasses and those of of her children.