What should you do with a doctor’s prescription ?

 So you have never worn glasses and thought you have some eye problem and visited the eye specialist. The eye specialist told you there is no major problem but there is some short sighted and maybe longsighted and presbyopia if you are over 40 years old. Another scenario is when you have cataract surgery and may need glasses to help you see clearer.  The optometrist at the clinic tested your eyes and gave you a prescription to make glasses.  Many people do not know what to do with the prescription and thought they can just give us that piece of paper and hope we can “fill it”, like a drug prescription at a hospital pharmacy.

The prescription typically comprises some numbers that you see on the prescription pad as shown below.

typical eyewear prescription
typical eyewear prescription

The above prescription pad from TTSH eye clinic shows your old prescription and the prescription that you got that day. There is distance as well as near prescription.  The optometrists at the clinics are usually very busy and will not tell you what you should do with the prescription other than tell you to bring it to the optician to make glasses. 

There are some numbers and the prescription is endorsed by the doctor. Do you really need a pair of glasses or contact lenses ? Many people will think obviously since the doctor said so. And most optician will be more than happy to sell you something.

At Evershine Optical, we don’t just fill the prescription like filling up a drug prescription. With the above prescription, you can either get a pair of distance glasses, near reading glasses, glasses that let you see clearly for distance and near (bifocals or progressives) or you can don’t need to get anything, depending on your circumstances.

We get people coming in with a prescription and expect us to give them a pair of glasses. But a pair of glasses for what purpose ? They want us to advise them based on the prescription given . Before we give you any advise, we need to ask you several questions based on the prescription :

  1. What do  you need ? For example,
    a. want to see distance clearly , see bus numbers.    
    b. want to read the papers clearly. want to see computer screens, ipad

The above is the most important question that needs to be answered if we are going to give you any optical correction. It will also determine whether you need reading glasses, distance glasses or both or one pair (bifocal or progressive) for both purposes.   If you can’t answer the above question, then we will decide for you but we will be doing a disservice to you because the glasses prescribed may not be what you need.

We are service providers not not mind readers.  In order to properly advise you and give you a pair of glasses that will meet your needs,  we will need to ask you several questions with regards to your lifestyle. Example, do you drive, play sports, work in the office, your occupation, whether you have worn glasses before, if you like or dislike wearing glasses etc. When we have all the required info, we will then be able to give recommendations that we think work best for you. 

However, some people misinterpret our intention (because we can be quite long winded) and ask us if we are uninterested in making a sale.  Are you kidding me ? We need to make money in order to keep the business going, why would we reject a potential sale ? At Evershine Optical we work a little bit differently, we are not here to simply sell you something but providing solutions to whatever vision related problems you have and hope to improve your life.