How bad is my eyeglass prescription ?

How to read an optical prescription ?

Following an eye examination, your ophthalmologist can decide whether you need to wear glasses or change the ones you currently wear.
Therefore, they write a prescription with the precise data the optician will need to design a suitable pair of glasses.
But this prescription can seem very complex to decipher, since it includes figures, pluses and minuses and abbreviations.
Therefore, it may be difficult for you to determine whether your eyesight is significantly impaired and what your optical correction will be.
Here are some keys to understanding your eyewear prescription and the severity or not of your visual defect.

What the various abbreviations mean ?

Here are the main abbreviations you will encounter reading your prescription.

 

  • O.S. stands for oculus sinister which means left eye in Latin.
  • O.D. designates the right eye or oculus dexter.
  • The indications concerning both eyes are placed under the abbreviation O.U. (oculus uterque).
  • NV designates your visual capacity at close range or near vision.
  • DV stands for distance vision, determining your ability to see from afar.
  • SPH stands for sphere and CYL for cylinder.
  • PD refers to your pupillary distance.
  • AXIS is your astigmatism data.
  • ADD stands for addition and is only relevant for presbyopes.

 

You might encounter other abbreviations depending on the visual disorder you suffer from.
In this case, your optician can help you decipher your prescription.

How to read the numbers on the prescription ?

When you receive your prescription, you want to know if your vision problem is serious.
To determine your exact visual impairment, it is imperative to know how to read the numbers listed after each abbreviation.
The number written after O.D., O.S. and O.U. is the measurement in diopters of your spherical correction.
It is on the basis of this data that the correction provided by the lenses is determined for each eye.
The higher the number, the greater the visual correction required.
This number is preceded by a plus (+) for people who can't see well at close range, such as hypermetropes.
On the other hand, it is preceded by a minus (-) for nearsighted people.
The same way, the degree of astigmatism corresponds to the height of the number following the abbreviation CYL.
Decifering an eye precription is still challenging for someone who is not a professional.
The most reasonable way to find out if your prescription is good or not is to ask your optician.
They will be able to give you more detailed information about your prescription and tell you if your eyesight is significantly impaired.

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