What does your glasses prescription mean?

A prescription is designed to ensure that you experience clear and comfortable vision. It is individual to each patient. Before purchasing any prescription glasses on our website, it is important that you have an in date prescription ( within the last 2 years) given to you by a registered optician. Please ensure to input all the values correctly on our system before proceeding with your order.

IMPORTANT: When you are placing your order, if you are not sure about how to enter your prescription correctly, we would recommend to use the ‘I will send prescription later’ option when ordering your glasses. It is much easier and avoids any errors in input if you take a photo of your prescription and send it to us by email after you have placed your order.

What do all the abbreviations and numbers mean?

1. SPH- stands for Sphere-

+ Indicates long sightedness, which means you struggle to see objects which are close to you
-Indicates short sightedness, which means you struggle to see objects that are further away from you.
The numbers can vary from small to large numbers. The higher the number on the prescription, the stronger the prescription is and vice versa with a lower number. The higher the prescription, the lens will have greater curvature.
Plano- indicates that you are neither long- sighted or short sighted.

2. CYL- stands for Cylinder

This figure represents the degree of distortion ( i.e. astigmatism) caused by an irregular shaped cornea. If there is no number, it means that there is no distortion and the eyes are perfectly spherical. A high number indicates that the eyes are more of an oval shape and a lower number represents slight deviation from spherical (the eyes are not completely round but almost)

3. Axis

This figure in degrees indicates the direction of astigmatism. This number directly helps the laboratory making your lenses to position them in the correct angle within the frame. It does not directly impact on vision.

4. Prism

This type of lens helps to correct double vision and headaches in cases where the eye muscles are not balanced. It is often used to correct a lazy eye.

5. Base

This number tells the laboratory where to place the prism in your lenses.

6. ADD

This is short for reading addition and only applies to reading glasses, bifocal or varifocal glasses. ADD may also be written as “ Near” on your prescription. If your glasses are for distance vision, ADD will not be present on your prescription. Please note that ADD may appear only once on the prescription but it generally applies for both eyes with the values being identical for both eyes.

N.B. If a Prism Value is present on your prescription, please advise us before placing your order.