Many eyeglass repairs are best left to optometrists or other eyeglass-repair professionals, but some can be tackled quickly and cheaply on one’s own…

Loose hinges. Eyeglass hinges often become stretched out over time. When that happens, the eyeglass arms no longer fit snugly against the temples, and the glasses become prone to sliding down the nose or falling off entirely.

What to do: Though this may be a temporary measure until you can get to an optometrist, many people find it works so well that they don’t bother seeing a professional. Take a pair of very small rubber bands, and slide one up each arm of the glasses until the rubber bands rest in the V-shaped gaps formed between the frame and arm when the arms are not fully extended. (Crafts stores often sell very small rubber bands.)

These rubber bands will serve as springs, pushing the arms of the glasses tighter against the temples. If you don’t like the way they look on your glasses, use a marker that matches the color of the eyeglass frame to color the rubber bands before sliding them into place. They might not be noticeable at all.

Lost screw for the hinge. The tiny screws that hold eyeglass hinges together occasionally fall out—and they’re so small that they often get lost.

What to do: The eyeglass repair kits sold in dollar stores, discount stores and elsewhere typically contain a small screwdriver and an assortment of tiny replacement screws. But there’s no guarantee that any of these screws will be the right size for your glasses. If you use one, check it each day for the first week or so to confirm that it has not started to come loose. If this tiny screw is even a fraction of a millimeter narrower than the original one, it could fall out, too.

If you don’t have a screw of the appropriate size, a paper clip can serve as a temporary substitute. Feed one end of the paper clip through the hinge, then use a pair of needle-nose pliers to bend it just above and below the hinge so that it can’t fall out. Use a wire cutter (often built into the same needle-nose pliers) to trim off the excess paper clip metal.

Lens that pops out of rimless or semi-rimless frames. Rimless and semi-rimless frames typically use a thin monofilament—essentially a piece of fishing line—to hold lenses in place.

What to do: After a lens pops out, loop a piece of ribbon around the monofilament, then use this ribbon to gently pull the monofilament aside so that you can slip the lens partially into place in the frame. Next, slide the ribbon down the length of the monofilament, gently tugging the monofilament into the groove on the edge of the lens as you do so. When the monofilament is completely in the grove, pull the ribbon free. If the ribbon is too tightly trapped between the monofilament and the lens to remove it without popping the lens back out, use scissors to cut the ribbon near where it passes between the monofilament and lens to make it easier to work free.

Two repairs NOT to do…

Do NOT use superglue on broken plastic frames. Mainstream glues generally will not repair a plastic eyeglass frame for long, and the residue this glue leaves behind will make it harder for a professional to later repair the glasses.

Do NOT use lens-scratch repair kits. There are products available that claim to remove eyeglass lens scratches. But they will either do a poor job removing scratches or will distort your vision when you look through the lens.