How To Read Vision Prescription

Nv your prescription might also contain the abbreviations dv distance vision or nv near vision.

How to read vision prescription. This is the lens power needed to fix your vision. Identify a sign. This number always has a sign. In a typical prescription like the one above you ll find these abbreviations on the left side. They are latin abbreviations.

They are abbreviations for oculus dexter and oculus sinister which are latin terms for right eye and left eye your eyeglass prescription also may have a column labeled ou. This is short for oculus sinister and is your left eye. Apart from your name and date of birth you will notice that there are quite a few letters numbers and symbols on your prescription. Os oculus sinister means the left eye and od oculus. These are latin abbreviations with os standing for oculus sinister or left eye and od standing for oculus dextrus or right eye.

The first thing you might notice when looking at your prescription is two abbreviations os and od. Right and left eye. To read an eyeglass prescription look for the labels o d and o s which stand for right eye and left eye respectively. If your prescription doesn t have a second or third number you most likely don t have astigmatism. Additionally read the cyl column to find the strength of lens you need to correct astigmatism.

When you look at your prescription for eyeglasses you will see numbers listed under the headings of os and od. Positive numbers such as 1 00 explain how strong a lens needs to be to correct for farsightedness. The first step to understanding your eyeglass prescription is knowing what od and os mean. After an exam your doctor will prescribe eyeglasses or contact lenses or both. This is what they all mean.

There are different ways in which ophthalmologists may write prescriptions. Dv is the portion of your prescription which corrects your ability to see things far away. For multi focal glasses as well as reading and computer glasses your rx will include an add or nv value. If you re near sighted or far sighted check the sph column to find out how strong your lenses need to be. The type of rx glasses may be noted on a prescription such as dv distance vision nearsightedness and nv near vision reading.