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20% Off Use Code “Love20” 

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Lens selection

Your prescription (Rx) provides us with your doctor’s recommendation for clear and comfortable vision. The numbers on your prescription tell us how strong the glasses need to be.
  SPH CYL AXIS PRISM ADD
O.D.  -3.25  -1.25  060    +2.50
O.S.  -3.50  DS      +2.50

The top row (O.D.) is the information for your right eye, The second row (O.S.) is the information for your left eye.

 SPH = SPHERE – The amount of long or short sightedness. This value specifies the optical power of a lens in diopters. It always has a plus (+) or a minus (-) sign in front or above it. The lens power for the distance correction will be minus while the correction for near distance and reading will be plus power. There will always be a value for sphere, even if it is just zero (written as 0.00, Plano or P).
As you can see in the sample chart, the patient’s right eye needs a power of -3.25 and left eye needs a power of -3.50. If the doctor put down P or Plano in this field, you can just choose PLANO when ordering.
CYL = CYLINDER – This is the measure for astigmatism. Again, there is always a plus (+) or minus (-) sign present. There may not be a value of cylinder in your prescription.
As you can see in the sample chart, the patient’s right eye has a CYCLINDER NUMBER -1.25, the left eye does not have a CYCLINDER NUMBER, the doctore may leave it blank or put down placeholder like “SPH(sphere)” or “DS” (diopters sphere , it means that you have sphere power only), in that case, you just leave this field blank when ordering.
AXIS – This will only appear if there is a value for cylinder, as it relates to the cylindrical lens and denotes a reference point that indicates the direction of the power of the cylindrical lens. It will be a number between 1 and 180. It may or may not be written with a degree ‘o’ symbol after the number. The doctor sometimes put down three digit number(060) or x+two digit number(x 60), both means the CYCLINDER NUMBER is 060
As you can see in the sample chart, the doctor put down a number “060” for the patient’s right eye since it has CYCLINDER NUMBER, and he leaves it blank for the patient’s left eye, since the left eye does not have a CYCLINDER NUMBER. In that case, you can just leave this field blank when ordering.
PRISM is a box on the rx prescription form that is not normally filled in. Occasionally, when the two eyes are not properly aligned and looking directly at the same thing, PRISM can be ground into the lenses in order to re-align them. This can occur with strabismus (ie – an eye turn) or in situations where the eyes are properly aligned but are under a tremendous amount of strain in order to keep them aligned. The value under the ‘prism’ heading denotes the strength of the prism.
If you do have PRISM, select “I have prism” box on the order form and enter your prism in the field. If there is no value for PRISM, you can just leave this field blank when ordering.

ADD = ADD POWER  (Sometimes referred to as SEG POWER as well)- If you want to order read-only glasse or MULTIFOCAL LENS (bifocal or progressive) the ADD POWER represents how much power gets added to the distance Rx, for your reading-only Rx or for the bottom half of your bifocals/progressive lens. 

If you buying reading only glasses, simply add this ADD figure to your sphere. If you buying bifocal or progressive glasses, then enter this figure into ADD field. If you do not need a read-only glasses or multifocal glasses, you can just leave this field blank when ordering.          

It is common for doctors to write their prescription in slight different format, here is some common prescription abbreviations:

 D.S. or DS = diopters sphere (means you have sphere power only)

X = axis; X 60 means AXIS 090

Pl or pl or plo = PLANO; it’s a placeholder for the number zero

O.U. or OU = both eyes

NV or NVO = near-vision or near-vision-only; your doctor is recommending “reading-only” glasses

-50 = -0.50

+100 = +1.00

If you still do not understand ANY part of your prescription, please contact us to ensure everything is entered correctly.