Many of these fixtures have one of the sides that the ends of the bulb fit into as a spring-loaded socket -- push it to the side, and you can get the bulb in or out easily.

Often you need to use something like a screwdriver blade to push these back, since they are too small to get good leverage with a finger. And they often used a strong spring, to keep a solid contact with the bulb. Plus the fact that it hasn't moved for a few years means that these springs are often stiff. Check both sides, usually only one of them is the one that moves.

Hello,

FWIW, I found that my bathroom lamp that *both* sides were spring loaded, but each only gave a very small portion of the overall width, so I had to push both back in order to take out the lamp light. Thanks for your previous post that gave light as to the correct way to solve this problem.

Zak