Decoding my glasses prescription!

April 18, 2018 1:25 AM

I'm putting together an order for some new glasses at Zenni. I have my prescription, and I've filled in all the relevant boxes on the form at Zenni. So far so good. But I'm completely stumped by the final 3 lines of my prescription. Please halp!

The final 3 lines are the V 1.0 (is this just single vision?) and the add 2.00 E.P part. What on earth do I do with these two items? There doesn't seem to be any place for these items on the form, but I'm a bit worried about not using them. If it helps, I got the prescription with a new pair of glasses from a big chain store here in Japan.

posted by Juso No Thankyou to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

Best answer: The 'add' part is your reading addition, which is the additional correction you need to focus at short distances, so it only applies to reading glasses or bifocals.
posted by pipeski at 3:45 AM on April 18, 2018

Best answer: In the Zenni interface, if you pick "Single Vision" as the prescription type, there is no place to enter the +2.00; it only shows up if you select "Bifocal." They label it "NV-ADD" which just means Near Vision or Reading Addition.

So, if you don't want bifocals, you can order +2.00 reading glasses in addition to single vision glasses. (You can also get them at any drugstore off-the-shelf.)

I agree, the V.1 on your printout means that the "information above" is for Single Vision lenses. Seems like an inelegant way to show it, but there you go.
posted by The Deej at 5:56 AM on April 18, 2018

(Your image has disappeared but I saw it earlier this morning, so I'm going from memory)

I agree with everything above except one thing. You can order single vision glasses, like sunglasses or for driving, by using the top part of the prescription, only the SPH/CYL/AXIS, and ignoring the ADD part like Deej says.

But +2.00 reading glasses from the drug store or Zenni (no difference) will certainly do you no good unless you can stack both pairs on your face at once. If you want glasses just for reading, you must add the +2.00 to the SPH and keep the CYL and AXIS the same.

I don't know what V1.0 means. The only other thing you might find on an Rx is a prism notation, and it wouldn't look like that.

But yeah, on Zenni as soon as you tell it this is a bifocal prescription, you'll be able to put in all the numbers other than the weird V.
posted by fritley at 8:06 AM on April 18, 2018

And just to complicate things, you might think about getting a lesser (than 2.00 in your case) near vision correction in either a bifocal or single vision. I had a very similar bifocal prescription, but the near vision component provided clear focus much too near my face to be good for reading or laptop work. I ordered a 1.00 NV correction in the bifocals, and added the 1.00 to the SPH correction (and keeping the CYL and AXIS the same as noted by fritley) on a single vision pair with blue blocking for computer work. (You can decide for yourself whether blue blocking is snake oil).
posted by bullatony at 10:47 AM on April 18, 2018