More than one way to write an eyeglasses prescription?

Question

I am very confused by my eye doctor. During my recent vision test, I showed him my last prescription from two years ago. He said, "Oh, we write ours differently here." He tried to explain but I didn't get it. For example, he showed me how he would've written that last prescription:

Old doctor wrote OD -7.25, +0.50 axis 110; OS -7.00, +2.25 axis 085. New doctor said his version of the same prescription was OD -6.75,-0.50, x020; OS -4.75, -2.25, x175.

Huh? To a layperson, those look like two entirely different prescriptions, don't they? But they're the same. The doctor even wrote on the slip "2006" to show me that what he'd written was a translation of my old prescription.

I am asking for more than just curiosity. Basically, I'm unhappy with his optical shop -- over the past two months, they've done everything wrong with my new glasses and I'm about to go somewhere else. Everything = their screwups have caused two remakes and I'm still not seeing right. I think my prescription is right, it's just that the frames and lenses are junk and they won't admit they used the wrong PD. But I'm not sure how to tell a new optician to translate my new prescription, which according to the new doctor is OD -6.75, -0.50 x 015; OS -5.00, -2.25, x174.

I used up my insurance benefits on this junk, and if i can avoid paying out of pocket for a new eye exam before I go to a new optician and pay out of pocket for new glasses, that would be great.

Answer 1

You don't have to tell the optician how to translate your prescription. We are all aware of how to do that.

The way it is now , is the way it has to be converted to anyway to be useable.

The Opthalmologists write it with the + on the 2nd number, the optometrists use the - form...the whole industry except the Opthalmologists use the - form , so we all know how to do the conversion.