Can toothpaste be used to remove scratches from eye glasses?
By bob from Newark, OH
As toothpaste is an abrasive, and there is a good chance that your eyeglasses are made of plastic, I would try some toothpaste on a piece of plastic and a piece of glass. My thought is the toothpaste is not a fine enough abrasive so it may very well leave scratches. I think jewelers rouge would work better than toothpaste. (12/26/2009)
By Deanj
There is no fix for scratched lenses. The only thing to do is go back to where you got them, they should come with some type of warranty against minor scratching from cleaning, etc. If not, you didn't get them from the right place! I am an optometrist assistant, and sell glasses all the time. (12/26/2009)
By Sherri
I used Armour Etch to remove the scratched reflective coating from my glasses and it worked great! I was so happy with the results, I posted a detailed how-to on my blog (with pictures) about it. Take a peek and make sure to read all the comments to hear all sides and how it has worked for many other people. Enjoy!
http://bkish.com/2009/03/15/readers-fixing-readers/ (01/03/2010)
By Joe
I also had a pair of glasses with plastic lenses that were terribly scratched and tried a few of the recommendations posted. I didn't have any luck with any of them as they seemed to make the scratches worse. I then tried a product I had purchased from Walmart for my car called Kit Scratch Out.
Not having anything to lose I began applying it with a soft cloth on both sides of the lenses. You have to be very patient and persistent, but the results were amazing. It took me most of a Sunday afternoon, but when finished my lenses were just like brand new with all, but the deepest scratches completely gone. I had to work through the coating to get to the lens itself before I started noticing the difference. It rinsed off completely with no residue and I am very satisfied with the results. Hope you have the same results I did. (01/05/2010)
By William
I was reading through all the other posts and realized I didn't have any of the items on-hand. But, what I did have here was a bottle of headlight cleaner for cars. It's made to get rid of haze and fine scratches on plastic headlights (you use a very fine-grade sandpaper first on headlights that are more severely scratched.
By Urd-chan
I had glasses that were so scratched they were not wearable. After reading everone's posts, I checked my sales receipt and saw plastic in several places so I was willing to take a chance with Armour Etch. What I wasn't willing to do was pay another $3-400 or more for new lenses. I just can't afford it now. Nor can I go without glasses. So unless I wanted to wear 4 year old glasses and have headaches for the next 2 weeks while new lenses were being made, and do without lunches and any discretionary income for a year while I paid for the new lenses, I decided to give Armour Etch a chance.
I went to Michaels and purchased Armour Etch in the small $12 bottle. With shaking hands and a new toothbrush, I put the paste on my lenses, waited 5 minutes and hoped for the best. Holding my breath, I ran them under clear water using dish soap to clean this time (just like your posts said to do). I then cleaned them with my glasses cleaner and dried them with a soft clean glass rag (like they give you when you buy glasses). OMG! I can't believe how crystal clear my lenses are now. You guys rock! And, I live in California so I was able to sit outside and never smelled any fumes at all. It was the easiest fix. Now I'll just take extra precautions when cleaning and handling them. But I'm glad I tried it.
Thank you everyone for all your tips. This one is a keeper. Just remember, make sure your lenses are plastic. (02/28/2010)
By Big Red2
My old prescription sunglasses had become nearly unwearable due to the cloudy, flaking, scratched anti-glare coating on the inside of the polycarbonate lenses (the coating is often on the inside of the lenses of sunglasses to reduce reflections). After reading these posts and several on other sites that indicated success using toothpaste, which has a mild abrasive quality, I decided to give good old Bon Ami a shot. Bingo!
I made a paste of Bon Ami and water and rubbed the lenses with the pad of my thumb for a couple of minutes. I then rinsed and dried the lenses and checked them under a bright light to judge my progress, then repeated the procedure about four times until the lenses were clear.
There is no apparent scratching or other new damage due to the Bon Ami, but the coating is nearly all gone. There's just a tad of it left around the screws that mount the lenses to the frame, but not enough to interfere with my vision. There are still a couple of tiny scratches on the lenses themselves, but overall the glasses are about 1000% better then they were.
Bon Ami's advertising slogan is "Hasn't Scratched Yet!" I'll be darned if it isn't true!
(03/31/2010)
By Doug Collins
LensCrafters said it would cost me over $300 to replace my scratched lenses. I can't afford that now, so I started searching online to see if there was a way to repair the scratches and found these posts. I went to Michael's this morning and picked up some Armour Etch. It took more than five minutes, more like three five-minute sessions, but it works! There is just one, small, deeper scratch. The rest of the lenses look brand new. Thanks so much. You guys saved me a bundle. (04/18/2010)
By Sue
You can fix scratched "glass" eyeglass lenses with minor scratches! As posted earlier by an optometrist assistant. You cannot fix scratched eyeglass lenses, so he says, so he can make you pay for new lenses. I ran into the same problem with local optical shops wanting me to spend money at more expense on new lenses.
I needed my glasses fixed after I used a wrong method using too aggressive buffing compound that left thousands of fine scratches all over the lenses. The lenses were unusable with significant visual scratches and distortions. The scratches were fine, not deep, and could not be felt with the finger nail. Wal-Mart told me the glass lenses were ruined. After searching on the internet and talking to my local glass shop, there is an inexpensive product that buffs out fine scratches in glass. The product is "cerium oxide". It comes in powder form, requiring you to add a few drops of water into the powder, overall making a water-based paste you smear onto the glass surface.
Using a fine cotton cloth you hand buff the lenses into a highly polished surface. The cerium oxide removed "all" of the minor scratches leaving the surface looking brand new and highly polished. I purchased cerium oxide on eBay for $12.99 including shipping. My first small batch of cerium oxide came from the local glass shop for free! The local optical shops told me that buffing optical lenses will change the optics, phony baloney. My sunglasses were non-prescription. Prescription or non-prescription lenses, you are only working out fine scratches that account for less than 1/100 of 1 percent of the glass material, minuscule. You are removing very, very little material when you are buffing and polishing the optical glass surface. Cerium oxide worked perfectly, at little cost, and is safe and easy to use on all glass surfaces with fine scratches including glass table tops, automotive glass, old televisions, and other glass optics.
The cerium oxide I purchased on eBay is advertised for glass optics. The cerium oxide I got from the local glass shop was highly recommended. They told me "it" works and it did! I don't know how it would work on plastic optical lenses and other plastic materials. I do know that it did not scratch my plastic frames, it polished them. The glasses I worked on were vintage Ray Ban Wayfarer glasses with original Bausch and Lomb lenses, not easy to replace. Now they look like new. I thank my local glass shop. Overall, any person on this posting that says you cannot fix fine scratches on glass optical lenses is wrong, suggesting they may have their own hidden agendas, may be ill informed or simply do not know what they are talking about. (06/11/2010)
Had some minor scratches on my polycarbonate sunglasses. So I thought I can remove them using some metal polisher like Brasso. Wrong choice! the lenses developed a haze due to the many fine scratches. Wearing it made me felt like I'm having a foggy scuba mask. I tried switching to toothpaste, but it didn't help. I was about to throw the sunglasses away, but decided to Google for some cheap solution that's worth trying.
It seems that the chemical compound that will etch glasses or hard polycarbonate lenses is cerium oxide. If you wiki it, somewhere it read, the compound is also used in some sunscreen lotion. I have a bit left in the tube of Banana Boat so I tried it by using a little on a piece of cotton pad and rubbed on the lens for a few minutes before rinsing with soap and water. And, the result is I have a new pair of sunglasses without any big investment in one of those scratch removing system.
Many a time, it is about identifying the active compound that works and look for it in some of the household items. (09/25/2010)
By UCAV WonS
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