Uzair Jan
Understanding your power contact lenses’ prescription might be a difficult task. It’s completely normal if the values and acronyms on the prescription may seem like it’s written in a foreign language.
Although it may appear to be confusing, the power contact lenses prescription provides important details to contact lens providers, ensuring the contact lenses you purchase are safe. Thus, allowing you to get the best possible vision correction for your eyesight.
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Why Would I Require A Prescription For Contact Lenses?
Selling power contact lenses without a prescription is not recommended and for the right reasons – after all, contact lenses are a medical instrument. Using contact lenses without the right prescription can induce distorted vision, sometimes pain, or irritation, as it doesn’t either fit the eye properly or isn’t made of the best materials that would suit your eyes. Note that poorly fitted contacts can also cause lasting damage to ocular tissue in exceptional cases.
When Will My Prescription For Contact Lenses Get Expired?
The expiration of power contact lenses prescription is something you need to be careful about. Using an expired prescription for your contact lenses can cause discomfort, dryness, and blurred vision.
Your optometrist will inform you about the expiration of your contact lenses prescription, depending on your eye condition. You should avoid purchasing contact lenses after the set expiration limit of your lens prescription by your Optometrist unless your optometrist changes the prescription. It’ll also necessitate an eye exam to assess your overall eye health and ensure that contact lenses are not causing you any discomfort.
What Exactly Does Each Section Of Your Prescription Indicate?
Your contact lens prescription contains a number of details that can be difficult to comprehend. To read your contact prescription, know these things:
- Base Curve (BC): The base curve defines the sort of fit necessary for the lens to accommodate the curve of the eyes. This dimension is normally expressed in millimetres, but it can also be expressed using terms like flat, median, or steep.
- Power/Sphere (PWR/SPH/D): This value tells if you’re near-sighted or farsighted, as well as how much correction you’ll need. Your values will start with a plus sign (+) in case of farsightedness.
And, in case of near-sightedness, it will start with a minus sign (-). In addition, it will be followed by a number that starts at 0 and increases in increments of 0.25 dioptres. The higher the value, the more serious or stronger the required optical correction.
- Diameter (DIA): The diameter of a contact lens is measured in millimetres and specifies the width which perfectly suits your eye.
- Cylinder (CYL): If toric lenses are needed to rectify astigmatism, your lens prescription will include Cylinder and Axis values. The cylinder would always have a negative integer that grows by 0.50 increments. The cylinder describes the value of astigmatism and any other visual needs, identical to the power/sphere figure seen in all normal prescriptions.
- Axis (AX): An uneven eye curvature characterizes astigmatism, and the axis is a value that specifies the angle of correction required that would allow you to see correctly. A value between 0 and 180 degrees has always been used as the axis.
- Addition (ADD): If you have presbyopia, then the ‘Addition’ value indicates how much correction you’ll need to see properly at a close range. A positive integer within 0.50 and 3.00 would be the Addition value which are mentioned as Low Addition for near powers up to +1.50D and High Addition for near powers more than +1.50D in multifocal contact lenses used in case of presbyopia
- Dominant: If you are using multifocals or bifocals, then the lens correction necessitates determining a dominant and nondominant eye. The Dominant eye, denoted by a ‘D,’ prioritizes distance vision, whereas the Nondominant eye, designated by an ‘N,’ prefers near vision.
Find Yourself A Leading Contact Lenses Provider
After you’ve figured out how your power contact lenses prescription functions, you may consider a variety of contact lenses from trusted brands like Bausch+Lomb, which has a vast array of contact lenses. However, before actually purchasing any power contact lenses, remember to consult with your optometrist and discuss which contact lenses would be the best for your eyes.
