I'm going to need bigger glasses to read this eyeglass prescription

November 29, 2010 6:21 AM

Please help me decipher this eyeglass prescription (extra difficulty: it's in Spanish) for the purpose of buying glasses online.

Zenni asks for:
OD SPH
OD CYL
OD AXIS

I think I understand it but I'm not sure about the 8-5 and whatever it's written above it.

I already have a pair of glasses based on this prescription but I have had extremely bad luck in the past with sunglasses and in case of accident I can't afford a replacement at full price.

posted by Memo to health & fitness (2 answers total)

Is it possible to take your sunglasses to a shop and ask them to "read" the prescription? I've had places offer to do that. They put it in a device that somehow figures it out. I don't know how accurate it is but it might help you figure out what the rest of the writing is.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 7:08 AM on November 29, 2010

yeah, take your existing glasses to an optometrist and have them put the lenses on the lensometer. That will give you your existing prescription: sphere, cylinder and axis, from which you or the optician can probably extrapolate the scrip if there is a difference.

Here's what you're looking for:

Sphere - how nearsighted you are. Looks like not very - apparently -1 (one diopter) on each side.
Cylinder - how astigmatic you are (the extent to which your eyeball isn't spherical)
Axis - the location on a circle of your aspheric (astigmatic) defect. This is shown on the little lens maps at the top of the scrip.

For your astigmatism your line seems to be: OI -1 1 + 4, which means -1 diopter sphere, 1 diopter cylinder (off sphere) at +4 degrees (axis). OI on your scrip is the left eye - would be OS (oculus sinister) in English.

Your right eye (OD) I think has -1 sphere, 6 cyl, axis 0 (since no axis value entered)?

Also, it says your PD (DP on the scrip) is 62, meaning 62 millimeters between the pupil centers of your eyes, which will be the "center" points of the lenses.

The "8-5" looks like "8-9" to me.
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:08 AM on November 29, 2010 [1 favorite]