Obtaining your prescription

 

Your optician is legally obliged to give you a clear legible copy of your prescription following your eye test and you should not feel under pressure to purchase spectacles from the store that does the test. Eye tests are now FREE to everyone living in Scotland - Introduced by the Scottish Executive on 1st April, 2006 as part of their of'Improving Scotland's Health' initiative.

How do I read my prescription?

 

Your prescription contains information to ensure you get the best vision possible out of your spectacles. Don't worry if your prescription doesn't have values in all of the boxes – this simply means that you don't require it.

Here is an example:-

The sphere (Sph) specifies the strength of lens required to correct your focus - a plus sphere to correct long-sightedness (hyperopia - difficulty focusing on close objects) and a minus to correct short sightedness (myopia - difficulty focusing on distant objects.) Intermediate is sometimes given and is for correcting sight at the mid distance eg VDU or Music. We will only supply glasses up to a prescription of a combined power +/- 5 .

The cyl and axis compensate for astigmatism. Astigmatism is where the eye loses its spherical shape and becomes more like a rugby ball. This just means the eye has difficulty focusing at certain angles.

The Add, short for Reading Addition, is the additional correction required for reading, this can be used to make either reading glasses or bifocal glasses.

A Prism indicates a more complex condition. If your prescription contains a prism we are unable to supply you online because accurate measurements will need to be taken when you're wearing the frames. We are happy to sell you the frames unglazed of course or you can visit our showroom.

ThePD, or Pupilliary Distance, is the distance between the centres of your pupils and is expressed in millimeters. Although we recommend that you ask for this measurement when you have your eye test it isn't a major factor at lower prescriptions and we will only supply glasses up to a prescription of a combined power +/- 5 online.

You may see two PD values, one for distance and one for near vision (reading.) If you do have 2 values put this information in the additional notes of the form.

Pulpillary Distance

 

PD is the distance from the left eye pupil centre to the right eye pupil centre. This can be provided by your optician or doctor and we recommend that you ask for it during your eye test. Alternatively, you may choose to use an average PD which is provided for you when ordering glasses.