Eyeglasses are positioned at a distance from the eyes, whereas contact lenses sit directly on the eyes. Therefore, it is important to use your eyeglass prescription to buy eyeglasses only. If you are not sure about what your prescription means, do not be afraid to ask your eye doctor for help. How to Read Your Eyeglass Prescription. November 5, Eye Health. Axis Axis is the lens meridian that has no cylinder power to correct astigmatism.
CYL The abbreviation stands for Cylinder. ADD Add stands for Addition. A Prism A prism corrects lay eyes.
Your eyeglass prescription is different from your contact lens prescription Remember that your eyeglass prescription does not apply to contact lenses. Share this page:. Related Articles. Learn about why cataracts develop and how you can lower your risk of getting them. Eyeglass Basics. We've created this simple guide to educate and help you better understand the types of lenses and wide assortment of lens options that are available.
How Frame Sizes Work. Looking good while seeing clearly is easy with all of the available lenses and coatings out there. View All Blog Articles. Need help understanding your prescription? Click here. In the context of optical lenses, a planoconvex lens refers to a lens which is flat and provides no dioptric power.
For demonstrative purposes in retail or home-trial scenarios, spectacle frames are fitted with what are called demo lenses. This is done to simulate corrective lenses, simply to give you an idea of what the frame will look like in a more realistic aesthetic. Despite providing no corrective power, demo lenses are not the same as plano lenses. If you prescription requires you to use a plano lens, your glasses will always be fitted with matching quality of lens such as CR39 or polycarbonate.
Axis refers to the lens meridian that contains no cylindrical power to correct astigmatism. The axis is labeled as a number from 1 to If a prescription includes cylinder power, it must be followed by an axis. The axis is always exactly degrees away from the meridian that contains all of the correcting lens power for astigmatism. Add indicates the magnifying power applied to the bottom part of bifocal, multifocal , or progressive lenses used to correct presbyopia age-related farsightedness.
Prism refers to the amount of prismatic power needed to correct eye alignment problems, measured in prism diopters. This number is followed by the base direction, or thickest edge, of the prism. This is only present if your eyes do not focus well together as a pair, such as in strabismus eye turn. This number will appear as a decimal 0. There may be additional information written in by your optometrist or ophthalmologist regarding your eye health.
These will usually be specific types of corrective lens recommendations such as multifocal lenses, progressives, anti-reflective coating, photochromatic, or transition lenses. Some eyeglass prescriptions may require a PD pupillary distance measurement. Remember, eyeglasses prescriptions are different than prescriptions for contact lenses. A contact lens prescription can only be obtained from a contact lens consultation and fitting.
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All Vision Center content is medically reviewed and fact-checked by a licensed optometrist to ensure the information is factual and meets industry standards.
Such a prescription is called spherocylindrical. Most doctors use a plus sign to indicate the need for a convex lens to correct farsightedness. A minus sign indicates the need for a concave lens to correct nearsightedness. Finally, remember that the prescription has nothing to do with how well you see.
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