Your Glasses Prescription

What should your prescription contain to make it valid?

• Your full name
• The date the prescription was issued
• The date the prescription will expire, or your recall date (when you are due for your next eye test) 
• Your prescription clearly stated 
• Name and signature of the optometrist who carried out your eye test 

Below is an example of a valid prescription:

Your prescription explained:

• The 'Sph' value indicates whether you are short or long sighted. Negative values show short-sightedness and positive values show long-sightedness.
• The 'Cyl' value indicates the level of astigmatism you may have, if it is blank you do not have an astigmatism. 
• The 'Axis' is the direction at which the astigmatism is positioned. 
• A 'Prism' is required if you have an eye muscle issue, prescriptions with prisms cannot be ordered online. 
• An 'Add' (sometimes specified by near or inter) isn't present on all prescriptions, it is for people who require a different prescription for distance and near tasks, commonly brought on by presbyopia. In this case you may require two separate pairs for distance and reading, or a varifocal. 
• The 'V/A' is not always present on all prescriptions and is not required to be present. It is a measurement of how well you can see with the prescription at the time it was issued. 
• A 'BVD' is required for higher prescriptions.