What Does Your Eyeglasses Prescription Mean?

20/20 Eyeglass Superstore carries over 4000 quality and designer frames. Accordingly, our tagline is, “A Frame for Every Face and a Price for Any Budget”. We pride ourselves on assisting Orlando residents find everything they need when it comes to vision care. From prescription lenses to progressives, we can assist you find exactly what you’re looking for.

If you wear glasses or contacts, you’ve probable looked at your prescription at least once and wondered what it all means. The terminology is meant for those in the industry. While optometrists and ophthalmologists may understand the language on a prescription for glasses or contacts, it often helps to know what the words mean for your own understanding.
To help clear up any confusion regarding what your eyeglasses prescription really means, it is important to understand a few basic words and abbreviations that can be found on the prescription. It may look a bit daunting, but understanding your eyeglasses prescription is easier than you might have thought.
The two most important of these mystery terms and abbreviations are OD (Oculus Dextrus) and OS (Oculus Sinister). These are Latin terms that mean right eye and left eye, respectively.

Listed after these OD and OS abbreviations are numbers preceded by either a plus sign (+) or a minus sign (-). A plus sign indicates that the designated eye is farsighted, while a minus sign indicates that the designated eye is nearsighted. This is measured in diopters, the unit of measurement that indicates the nearsightedness or farsightedness of the eye. Diopters are normally abbreviated to a simple D, so an OD -1.25 indicates that a patient is one and one quarter of a diopter farsighted in their right eye.

Having to get glasses or contact lenses can be frustrating enough, but when you don’t understand the prescription, it can be extremely frustrating. Understanding your prescription is important, and is made easy by grasping these few basic concepts. The next time your eye doctor gives you a prescription for new glasses, you will know what to expect.

Read the original article on Glassescrafter.com

Drop in at 20/20 Eyeglass Superstore, we help thousands of Orlando, Melbourne City and Orange City residents purchase eyeglasses, contact lenses and sunglasses every day. We know purchasing new eyeglasses can be a challenge. Inexpensive reading glasses at the store are cheaper than prescription lenses. Is visiting an eye doctor and getting a prescription worth the extra cost?