Eye Sight - How Can You Tell What it Is

[Aggie_Ama]

Aside from having a doctor tell you, can you tell from your contact prescription what your eyesight is?The prescription for the contacts are SPH: +5.5, CYL: -2.25, BC: 8.7.

[ny biker]

I don't know, but I'm guessing you're farsighted? Since mine are -2.75 and I'm nearsighted. (Except I'm also starting to need reading glasses, but anyway.)

[Aquila]

According to my prescription, the first number is spherical (mine is 10.5 in the worse eye, fairly nearsighted). The second number is cylindrical, and the third on mine is axis; there's an empty space for prism and another for base; I have no clue what those two do, but I think cylindrical or axis might be astigmatism?

I LOVE that we have the technology to make glasses and contact lenses. I think dog every day that I don't live in the 12th century!

[martinkap]

Read here:
http://www.pradaglasses.co.uk/prescriptions.html

[WindingRoad]

Aside from having a doctor tell you, can you tell from your contact prescription what your eyesight is?The prescription for the contacts are SPH: +5.5, CYL: -2.25, BC: 8.7.

I assume you mean if you are 20/20 or 20/30 etc? Unless your doctor has told you otherwise you should be corrected with the prescription to 20/20. I'm not sure if you were just curious or you were wanting glasses or something made but the script for glasses is different as the lenses sit at different distances from the eye. The first number corrects your farsightedness and the second number corrects your astigmatism. The third number is only for contacts and is a measure of the curve of your cornea so the contacts will sit on your eye correctly. Hope that helps.

[lph]

I LOVE that we have the technology to make glasses and contact lenses. I think dog every day that I don't live in the 12th century!

Did you mean to write that, Aquila? :D That's one of my favourite jokes, the one about the agnostic, dyslexic insomniac, who stayed up all night wondering if there really was a dog...

And I agree with you completely: contacts especially are one of the modern worlds real miracles. If I'd been born in the Stone Age I'd at best led a life pounding corn by the campfire, because if I'd ventured outside I would've been eaten by a lion likeTHAT. Minus 6, and useless without my tiny silicon miracles.

[Aggie_Ama]

I was mainly wondering uncorrected in terms of 20/20. I know it is 20/20 corrected but my friend is applying for a job with a vision requirement and I was just curious how bad your vision can be. So mainly it is just my inquiring mind wants to know!

[OakLeaf]

Here's a discussion of visual acuity with a chart (http://www.mdsupport.org/library/acuity.html) that compares approximate diopter correction to Snellen fractions (scroll down to the bottom).

[Atlas]

And I agree with you completely: contacts especially are one of the modern worlds real miracles. If I'd been born in the Stone Age I'd at best led a life pounding corn by the campfire, because if I'd ventured outside I would've been eaten by a lion likeTHAT. Minus 6, and useless without my tiny silicon miracles.

I would be sitting next to you. Even pounding corn I probably would have smashed a few fingers.

[malkin]

I can't tell what it is, I only know it ain't what it used to be.

In a primitive life, I'd be able to hold and rock small children. I'd go ahead and lose my hearing too (and a little bit of my mind), so crying wouldn't bother me.

[Biciclista]

In a primitive life, you might have had better vision
read this and maybe some of your children and grandchildren will benefit:

http://www.fathermag.com/news/2766-myopia.shtml
PHILADELPHIA -- Infants who sleep at night in a bedroom with a light on may be at higher risk for nearsightedness later in childhood. A collaborative study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia found that children who slept with either a room light or night light on until age 2 were more likely to later develop myopia (nearsightedness), compared to children who slept in darkness. Graham E. Quinn, M.D., a pediatric ophthalmologist at Children's Hospital, and Richard A. Stone, M.D., of Penn's Scheie Eye Institute, announced their findings in the May 13 issue of Nature.

more at the link

[lph]

Hm, I seem to remember reading about these results way back when, and then later hearing they were flawed, as near-sighted children were more likely to have night lights on in their bedrooms in the first place. Maybe this is a new study?