I was told that i have 20/20 vision in both eyes so why was i giving glasses with prism lenses?

Question

I am having some light headiness while driving or if I watch to much tv. They causes pain in the back of my heads and then leads to headaches so I went and seen an eye doctor he said that I had 20/20 vision but needed glasses with prism lenses. I had my 3 year old with me so I didn't get a chance to ask very many questions. The only thing I can remember him saying is that when I drive my eyes are fighting each other and that causes light handedness. I haven't got the glasses yet but he gave me a prescription for Well it says OD is 1 ^ BD and OS is 1/2 ^ BO. I was just wondering if anyone knew what all this meant. Thank you

Answer 1

Prism lenses have nothing to do with vision acuity.  They force the eye muscles to work together instead of independently, as yours do now.

OD is a medical abbreviation (that we no longer use) for right eye.  And OS (also no longer used) is the abbreviation for left eye.  Prism lenses are thicker at the bottom (base).  Below is a link to prescriptions explained.  Scroll down the page after you click on this link and you'll see Prism Lenses.

http://www.eyetopics.com/articles/94/1/E...

Answer 2

The optician is correct

Your eyes have a tendency to be misaligned so the prism is helping bend the light to ease some of this misalignment.  

OD and OS are the standard abbreviations for right eye and left eye and I've NEVER heard of them not being used anymore in the medical field.

Answer 3

Our nurse is close, but no cigar.

Prisms don't make the eye muscles do anything, they simply displace the images you see with each eye to make them fuse together as one, to alleviate double vision problems.

OD and OS are always used...just as much as ever on optical prescriptions.

But, the part about the visual acuity not necessarily being affected by the need for a  prism is correct.