ABOUT YOUR PRESCRIPTION

After you've made your choice of frame it's now time to choose your lenses.  Choose from single vision lenses, bifocals or progressives. Then you can either  upload the prescription, enter it into our ordering system, or email it to us at hopkinsandeye@gmail.com.  If you need help don't hesitate to message us and we can help you.

Sphere refers to the power of your lens (measured in dioptre units) to correct the degree of short or long sight you have. It is common for the number to be different for each eye. The figures will have a plus sign if you are longsighted and a minus sign if you are shortsighted. 

This indicates the amount of lens power for astigmatism. If nothing appears in this column, you have little or no astigmatism that requires correction. If you have no astigmatism then you will not need to enter an 'axis'on the chart, as explained below.

The term "cylinder" means that this lens power added to correct astigmatism is not spherical, but instead is shaped so one meridian has no added curvature, and the meridian perpendicular to this "no added power" meridian contains the maximum power and lens curvature to correct astigmatism.

The axis number on your prescription tells your optician in which direction they must position any cylindrical power in your lenses (required for people with astigmatism). The number may be between 1 to 180, where 90 represents the vertical position while 180 represents the horizontal position. The numbers only describe the position of astigmatism, they do not explain the strength of your prescription. The Axis can be present if there is a CYL value.

 What is an 'Add'?

Add stands for Addition. It stands for the additional correction that you need for reading. It is used in bifocal glasses, reading glasses, or varifocal glasses. It represents the additional power over the distance prescription. It only appears once in your prescription because the additional power is the same for both eyes. The value is typically between +0.50 to +3.50. If you only need your glasses to correct shortsightedness or long-sightedness and not for reading, you may not need this.