Contents:
- Medical Video: How to read your optical prescription for glasses and order online
- How to read prescription glasses
- SPH
- CYL
- AXIS
- ADD
- PRISM
Medical Video: How to read your optical prescription for glasses and order online
When you feel there is a change in vision, such as the view becomes somewhat blurred and can not see long distances, this can be a sign that your visual ability has decreased. This visual impairment makes you want to wear glasses. Before buying glasses, your eyes will be checked so that the glasses that you use match your eye's needs. You can see your doctor's eye and you will also get a prescription from a doctor.
However, do you understand how to read prescription glasses?
How to read prescription glasses
There are various disorders of vision, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, cylinder eyes, and so on. This eye disorder also has strengths, such as -1, +2, -2,5, and others. You can find out all this in your prescription glasses.
But the problem is that when reading prescription glasses you are usually confused about what it means, because there are many abbreviations and numbers in the recipe table. For that, you should pay attention to which recipe for right eye and left eye first.
In the column and the leftmost row, it is usually written OD and OS or R and L. OD stands for Oculus Dextra which is the Latin term for the right eye. This is equivalent to R, which stands for Right (right in English). Whereas OS stands for Oculus Sinistra, which is the Latin term for the left eye. And, this is the same as L for Left (left). Sometimes, you might also find the OU script, which stands for Oculus Uterque and has the meaning of both eyes.
Once you know which recipe for the right and left eye, then you can go to the table column next to it. There, you will find the words SPH, CYL, AXIS, ADD, and PRISM. What is that?
SPH
It stands for "sphere". This shows the amount of lens power needed by your eyes, can be a plus lens or a minus lens. If the number written in the column has a minus sign (-), it means you are nearsighted. If the number written in the column is followed by a plus (+) sign, it means you are nearsighted. The bigger the number written (apart from the minus sign or plus), the thicker the lens that your eyes need.
CYL
It stands for "cylinder". This shows whether you have cylindrical eyes or not, along with the number of power lenses for the cylinder. If there are no numbers written in this column, that means you don't have your cylinder eyes or cylinders so little that you don't need to use glasses with a cylindrical lens. If in this column there is a number followed by a minus sign (-), meaning the power of the lens for nearsighted cylinders. And, if the number is followed by a plus (+) sign, it means for a nearsighted cylinder.
AXIS
Is the orientation of the cylinder, which is indicated by the numbers 0 to 180 degrees. If your eyes are cylindrical, the axis value must also be written by following the strength of the cylinder. Usually the axis value is written by preceding by "x". Example: x120, meaning the slope angle of the cylinder lens is 120 degrees to correct the cylinder eye.
ADD
It is a magnifying force added to the bottom of a multifocal lens to correct presbyopia (farsightedness) or for reading needs. The numbers written in this column are always in plus strength (even though a plus sign may not be written). Generally it ranges from +0.75 to +3. And, usually the strength is the same in every eye.
PRISM
This shows the amount of correction that may be needed in some people to align the eyes so that the vision looks straight. If there is, the number of prism will be written in fractions or decimals and followed by a prism direction. There are four abbreviations for prism direction, namely BU (base up = above), BD (base down= bottom), BI (base in= towards the user's nose), and BO (base out= towards the user's ear).
