How to read your eyeglass prescription and understand your eye grade

You get your eyes checked, someone hands you a small card full of numbers and abbreviations, and you nod politely without understanding a single figure. Most Filipinos call it their grade. Optometrists call it a prescription. Either way, here is how to actually read it.

OD and OS: your right and left eye

Prescriptions are written in Latin shorthand. OD means your right eye and OS means your left. If you see OU, that refers to both eyes together. The numbers next to each tell the story of what each eye needs.

SPH: the main number, your grade

SPH, or sphere, is the figure people mean when they say my grade is 200. It measures how much correction you need. A minus sign means you are short-sighted, so distant things look blurry. A plus sign means you are long-sighted, where close things are harder to focus on. The bigger the number, the stronger the correction.

CYL and AXIS: your astigmatism

If your eye is shaped a little more like a rugby ball than a basketball, you have astigmatism, and it is very common. CYL (cylinder) shows how much astigmatism you have, and AXIS, a number from 1 to 180, tells the lens which direction to correct it in. Blank boxes here simply mean no astigmatism.

ADD: help for reading up close

ADD is extra magnifying power for near vision, usually added once we hit our forties and reading a menu or a phone gets harder. If you have an ADD value, it points toward reading glasses, bifocals, or progressive lenses that handle distance and near in one lens with no visible line.

PD: the distance between your pupils

PD, or pupillary distance, is how far apart your pupils are in millimetres. It makes sure the clearest part of each lens sits directly in front of each eye. It matters most for stronger prescriptions and for progressives.

The lens index: how thin your lenses will be

Your prescription tells us your grade. The lens index tells us how thin the lens can be made. Here is the simple version: 1.5 is standard, 1.6 and 1.67 are noticeably thinner, and 1.74 or 1.76 are the thinnest we make. The stronger your grade, the more a higher index helps, because it keeps strong lenses light and flattering instead of thick and heavy.

Turning numbers into the right lenses

A prescription is only half the job. The other half is choosing lenses that fit your life. At Vision Express, single-vision lenses start at just under P1,490 and progressives start at P1,990, and every lens can carry anti-glare and scratch-resistant coating, full UV protection, and a blue-light filter for screen time. We keep it simple with three levels: Starter for everyday clarity, Advanced for sharper and wider vision (the popular pick), and Premium for the clearest, thinnest lenses we offer.

Prices you see are per lens and are fitted after your Vision7 eye exam, so what you buy actually matches what your eyes need. And with Buy 1, Get your 2nd pair 50% off on every lens, you can put your grade into a daily pair and a backup, or a pair of sunglasses, in one go.

Not sure what your grade means? Ask us

Book a Vision7 eye test at your nearest Vision Express store. The seven-step exam gives you a current card with every number measured properly, and our optometrists will walk you through what each one means for your eyes.

Then ask for the Shamir Opulens Exact at the counter. Most lenses are made to the nearest stock power, which quietly rounds off your CYL and AXIS. This one is cut to the exact numbers on your card, so the astigmatism correction lands at the right angle and the lens stays clear out to the edges, not just through the middle. If your grade is on the stronger side, that precision is also what keeps the lens thinner.

Single vision lenses are ready in 30 minutes and frames in stock are yours in 20. Every pair comes with free lifetime ultrasonic cleaning and free lifetime custom fitting and adjustment, so the PD we measured stays lined up with your eyes.