How to Know if You Wear Spherical or Circular Contact Lens

Sticking something in your eye is not natural, so it is normal to be apprehensive when your eye doctor is giving you the details of your new contact lens prescription and instructions. A perfect cornea is basketball-shaped, but most corneas are more football-shaped, called astigmatism. Spherical contact lenses do not correct astigmatism. If you're not sure whether you have spherical or toric contact lenses, you can usually determine the type by doing one or two simple things.

Things You'll Need

• Contact lens prescription

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Instructions

• 1

  Look at your contact lens prescription. Spherical contact lenses have numbers only under the column labeled "PWR" or "Power." The right lens is usually written as OD, for oculus dexter, and the left lens as OS, oculus sinister. If your contact lens prescription has any numbers under the column CYL and AXIS, the lens has astigmatic correction.

• 2

  Check your prescription for the word "Toric." Soft contact lenses that correct astigmatism are called toric lenses and are usually labeled that way on your prescription.

• 3

  Place your contact lens in the palm of your hand and very gently rub your finger in a circle inside the lens, as if cleaning your contact. Toric lenses have ballasts, weights or ridges and you should be able to feel a slight irregularity or bump in the lens. Spherical lenses have a conformity and feel the same throughout the lens.