How to Properly Write a Glasses Prescription

A prescription for glasses is determined by an eye care practitioner and specifies how your glasses are to be made. A glasses prescription is recorded on paper much like a prescription for medication and contains a series of numbers and abbreviations. Spectacle prescriptions are usually written in a certain order.

Instructions

• 1

  Record the distance correction for the right eye first. Right eye is listed in Latin on optical prescriptions as O.D. (for Ocular Dexter). Then record the left eye as O.S. (Ocular Sinister). These are usually listed next to the letters DV (distance vision) on the prescription pad.

• 2

  Write the refractive power of the lenses under the spherical column (SPH). Use a minus sign (-) for myopia (nearsightedness) and a plus sign (+) for hyperopia (farsightedness).

• 3

  Record the cylinder and axis if needed to correct astigmatism. This will be recorded in the column next to the SPH and is sometimes listed as CYL. Cylinder is the amount of power in your astigmatic correction and axis is the location of the cylinder in the lens, between zero and 180 degrees.

• 4

  Specify the pupillary distance or PD. This is the measurement in millimeters of the distance between your pupils.

• 5

  Write the bifocal power, if needed. This is recorded as ADD or NV (for near vision) and usually is written under your distance correction. The number will always begin with a (+) sign.

• 6

  Disregard the section on the prescription noted as Prism and Base unless there is a correction for muscular imbalance of the eyes.