Glasses Prescriptions

If you wear glasses or contacts, you should have an expiration date printed on your prescription. You may be wondering, how long are eye prescriptions good for typically?

In the U.S., prescriptions for glasses usually expire after one or two years. Most contact lens prescriptions are valid for one year.

Eye doctors also have to consider things like age, eye conditions, and the general health of the patient before they decide on an expiration date.

Let’s get into how long eye prescriptions are good for in the U.S. and why some expire sooner than others.

If you wear glasses or contact lenses, you’ve seen diopter numbers before! They’re the pluses and minuses on prescriptions, such as -2.00 or +1.50.

Most people know that bigger numbers mean thicker or stronger glasses. But you may still be asking, what is a diopter exactly? And what’s it measuring?

Once you fully understand how this all works, your prescription will make a lot more sense. Let’s get into it!

Does your eye prescription look like a confusing blur of letters? If you’ve just gotten your first prescription, there are probably lots of questions running through your mind. 

What are all those acronyms? What are those numbers? Why are there pluses and minuses next to the numbers?

If you’re feeling lost, I’m here to help. I’ll walk you through how to read your eye prescription so you can better understand your eyesight.