Read Contact Lens Prescription

Trying to read your Read Contact Lens Prescription can feel like you do need glasses. But a contact lens prescription is just a simple shorthand used between opticians and contact lens makers to describe what contact lenses to issue you.

Refractive error means how much off the mark your vision. This causes blurred vision because light is not fully focussed onto the photo sensors on the retina at the back of your eye.

At the top of your Contact Lens Prescription is a letterhead with the name of the optometrist / eye clinic and contact number and mailing address for queries.

In the middle of your eye prescription is the actual description of your eye lens and correction.

How to Read Contact Lens Prescription

Using the example contact lens prescription above:

• Vision Blue is the brand and color of lens.
• R or od (oculus dexter) means your right eye, and L or os (oculus sinister) means your left eye.
• BC stands for base curve which is how rounded the lens will be to fit your eye curvature.
• Dia means the diameter of the lens i.e. how wide it is.
• Power means how strong the lens needs to be to bend light back into focus in your eye: minus scatters light out of your eye pushing the focus point farther back (used in nearsightedness (myopia) where the eyeball is too long), while plus lenses bend light in pulling the focus point forward in your eye (used in farsightedness (hyperopia) where the eyeball is too short).
• Cyl (cylinder) and Axis are two additional descriptions on eye prescriptions for persons with Astigmatism who need additional light curvature at several points to focus true.

And that's all you need to know to read your contact lens prescription.

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