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PRESCRIPTIONS - HELP
PRESCRIPTIONS - CONTACT LENSES
Before you place your contact lens order you will need to know the prescription details for your contact lenses. Your optician has a legal obligation to provide you with a legible copy of your prescription.
On the contact lens packaging, lens foil or your contact lens prescription will be written a series of numbers. These are your contact lens prescription parameters.
Occasionally, for some lens brands, a parameter is fixed across the entire range. In this instance the parameter may not be displayed on the packaging but it should always be written on the contact lens prescription issued by your optician.
The Base Curve (BC) is generally the first figure you will see and is always a decimal number (e.g. 8.4).
The DIA is generally the second figure and has a value of about 14.00.
The Spherical Power (SPH) is a decimal number preceded by a + or - sign (e.g. +5.25 or -6.75).
Many eyes have a front surface shaped like a rugby ball rather than a football. This is called astigmatism and may require a toric contact lens. The toric lens power is known as a Cylinder (CYL) and the axis denotes the orientation of the CYL.
A bifocal or multifocal lens has an additional focal power for reading. This is the ADD.
It is important that you give us all the information contained on your prescription form. Below are several examples of what you prescription may look like; Some boxes may be left blank or there may be additional information not shown in these examples, whatever format your prescription comes in you must forward all the information to us in order for us to complete your glasses.
Your prescription may look like this:
| BC/DIA |
Sph (or Power) |
| 8.60 X 14.20 |
- 2.75 |
If you wear special torics contact lenses then your prescription may look like this:
| BC/DIA |
Sph |
Cyl |
Axis |
| 8.60 X 14.20 |
-2.75 |
-1.25 |
170 |
If you wear bifocal contact lenses your prescription may look like this:
| BC/DIA |
Sph |
Add |
| 8.60 X 14.20 |
-2.75 |
+2.25 |
PRESCRIPTIONS - GLASSSES
All we need to make your glasses is your prescription. Therefore, before you place your spectacles' order you will need to know the prescription details for your glasses. Your optician has a legal obligation to provide you with a legible copy of your prescription.
It is important that you give us all the information contained on your prescription form. Below are several examples of what you prescription may look like; Some boxes may be left blank or there may be additional information not shown in these examples, whatever format your prescription comes in you must forward all the information to us in order for us to complete your glasses.
the amount of long (+) or short (-) sight. The higher the number, the stronger the prescription lens required.
the amount of astigmatism, or visual distortion, caused by an irregularly shaped cornea.
the direction of the astigmatism, measured in degrees.
PRISM - correction needed to balance the eyes.
Near ADD the amount of additional correction needed to focus at close distances. If you have a measurement shown in this section it means that you have different prescription requirements for distance and reading. This can be solved by having different spectacles, or bifocal or varifocal lenses.
the amount of correction needed to cope with intermediate distances, such as working at a PC or reading music. In many cases, rather than having separate spectacles for this, customers are prescribed varifocal lenses
Your Pupillary Distance (PD)
This is simply the distance between the middle of the pupil in one eye to the middle of the pupil in your other eye.
Ask your optician to note this on your prescription when you have your eye-test. If this hasn't been done though, you can take this measurement yourself by using a ruler that shows millimetres.
- Sit or stand in front of a mirror.
- Place the ruler across the top (bridge) of your nose.
- Put number 0 on the centre of a pupil of one eye, and then look at the centre of the pupil of the other eye, read the number above on the ruler. This is the number of your PD.
As a guide, an average PD can vary form 65mm to 75mm. The national average is PD 63mm, so if you have difficulty taking this measurement yourself or do not provide it, we will automatically make up your glasses to this average.
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