Different perscription for contacts and glasses?!
Question: I went to the eye doctor today and I definately felt like my vision had gotten worse. Well I was right.When my doctor refracted( i think that is the word he used)my vision went from being -1.25 in my right and -1.00 in my left both with -.5 astigmatism to -1.75 in both eyes without astigmatism. At least that is what he told me and what the glasses perscription said. When I went over to the contacts people, I already wore contacts I have for about 4 years, they had me put my old ones on and said since I could still read the 20/20 line with those, i could read it but barely, they said they didn't need to give me a stronger perscription. I know what I saw when I was with the doctor through the machine was clearer than that. So my question is why would they do this I mean .5 and .75 is enough to make a big difference right? Shouldn't they have just given me the perscription my doctor wrote.Should I go back and have them fix it or am I just worrying over nothing?Thanks so much for your help
Answers: I went to the eye doctor today and I definately felt like my vision had gotten worse. Well I was right.When my doctor refracted( i think that is the word he used)my vision went from being -1.25 in my right and -1.00 in my left both with -.5 astigmatism to -1.75 in both eyes without astigmatism. At least that is what he told me and what the glasses perscription said. When I went over to the contacts people, I already wore contacts I have for about 4 years, they had me put my old ones on and said since I could still read the 20/20 line with those, i could read it but barely, they said they didn't need to give me a stronger perscription. I know what I saw when I was with the doctor through the machine was clearer than that. So my question is why would they do this I mean .5 and .75 is enough to make a big difference right? Shouldn't they have just given me the perscription my doctor wrote.Should I go back and have them fix it or am I just worrying over nothing?Thanks so much for your help
Glasses are farther away from your eyes than contact lenses, the prescription is supposed to be slightly different, and this is a only slight difference (no, .5 and .75 are not huge differences). But if your glasses prescription increases then your contacts prescription should increase at the same time, assuming both previous prescriptions were the same age. But in any case, you are entitled to have anything you don't understand explained to you. I would go back and ask for an explanation, and in future if annything confuses you ask at the time. It's your eyes and your money.
The first responder to your question is wrong on both counts.
The difference in the distance from your eyes from glasses to contacts doesn't have any effect until your spectacle correction reaches - 4.50...then compensation has to start being made for the contact prescription. Below 4.50 the correction remains the same as the glasses. Unless there is .50 or .75 of astigmatism correction also, then a 0.25 has to be added to the contact prescription.
Second, a 0.50 or 0.75 is a huge difference when you are only wearing a 1.25 to begin with.
If your new spectacle Rx is -1.75 in both eyes, then your contacts should also be the same.