What are the abbreviations on my prescription?

What are the abbreviations on my prescription?

Here is a list of terms you can use to help better understand your prescription:

Rx: The abbreviation for Prescription
OD: Latin for Oculus Dexter, meaning the Right Eye.
OS: Latin for Oculus Sinister, meaning the Left Eye.
OU: Latin for Oculus Uterque, meaning each eye.
SPH: The first section on the prescription, shows the correction for nearsighted or farsighted vision.
CYL: The Cylinder with the AXIS, the CYL corrects for astigmatism.
AXIS: The angle the Cylinder (CYL) is placed on a lens to correct astigmatism. It ranges from 001 to 180.
PL: Plano, which is Latin for flat. If this is in the Sphere section of a prescription, it means no correction is needed.
DS: The abbreviation for Diopter Simplex. An optician or doctor may write DS on a prescription if that field requires no correction.
PAL: Progressive Addition Lens – sometimes on a Progressive prescription, an optician or doctor may write two different numbers for the ADD to increase the reading power for Progressive lenses.
PD: Pupillary Distance – the distance between your pupils. This measurement is needed to place the optical center on each lens.
AR: Anti-Reflective – a type of coating that reduces reflection on the lenses.
UV: The abbreviation of ultraviolet light.

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