Can I Used My Glasses Prescription for My Contact Lens?
June 24th, 2010 | See the Top Answers to this Question Below
i know most of you are probably going to say go to an optometrist but people who have contacts know it cost more to get contact exam more than getting a glasses exam. i can’t really afford that right now especially without an insurance. i dont have astigmatism last tI ame i checked.
my glasses prescription is +1.00 both eyes and i’m nearsighted.
i’d really appreciate helpful answers.
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Hey Leighh,
Footprintz is right, you can’t use your glasses rx for contacts.
Even you don’t have any astigmatism, and even if you guessed at the contact lens power, you still need two very crucial measurements to make the contact lenses fit.
I say "guess" at the contact lens power because your eyeglass prescription is designed for the lenses that sit about 11 mm from your pupils. This is called the vertex distance and is taken into account when the eye doc writes your rx.
The first crucial measurement is the back curve of the contact lens, or what we call the base curve. This is the measurement of the curvature of your cornea, and is really crucial to how the contact fits on your eye. If it’s too flat it will press on the center of your cornea, causing pain, or worse… if it’s too steep it will slide around on your eye.
The second crucial measurement is the overall size of the cornea, or diameter. This will determine how big or small the lens needs to be to work.
I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear, but you really need to see an Optometrist to get a proper fitting, instruction, and follow up care.
If your glasses rx is recent, you may be able to go back to the same doc and just pay for the contact lens fitting.
If you do decide to get a contact lens prescription, you can get cheap contact lenses online. I found http://ContactLens.info2here.com to be the cheapest so far.
Hope this helps!
Contacts cannot be dispensed without a contact prescription, so yo ushould no tbe able to get any anyway. And if yo find a way, many times your glasses and contact prescription are different because of the distance from your eye to the correction. glasses are farther away so the prescription is often different to make up for the angle of the curve in the lens.
You still have to have measurements taken to know what curvature you need, as well as what brand would work best for you.
You won’t be able to order contacts anywhere without a valid prescription for them…which means going through the fitting process, which means a seperate exam.
It sucks, but that’s the way it works in the US
You say nearsighted and + 1.00…I think you mean – 1.00