Today I shouted at Specsavers...

[Potatoooooo]

I feel ashamed and upset with myself. My daughter wears a strong prescription. Right +6.75 left +8.00 she also has a squint in her left eye.

Today I was sorting out all of her glasses, and found a pair we had gotten from specsavers earlier this year which is a slightly different prescription +6.75 and +7.75.
I noticed that, the left lense was actually thinner than the right lense, which on comparison of all her other glasses appeared to look wrong - given the fact that her higher prescription was the left lense.

It should look thick, thicker than the right if that makes sense?

I started panicking thinking, have they given me the wrong prescription? I compared all of her glasses, even the pair that is the same frame (different colour) they were even different. In all of her glasses the left lense was thicker than the right, showing her left eye has a higher prescription.
But these glasses did not.

I went to Specsavers, I asked to see a manager. I got a bit teary with her, expressed that I wasn't sure if she had been wearing the wrong prescription which is important as we'd come so far with her squint, I didn't want to find out it had possibly regressed.

She checked it, told me it was correct. I kept asking why the lense is thinner, she couldn't answer me. By this point I was raising my voice, I was getting short tempered because I knew something wasn't right.

She got a guy to come down who told me that they had surfaced one lense but not the other. I told them I was getting a second opinion. They did not tell me why they had surfaced one lense and not the other.

I went to another optician who told me the prescription was correct, but the axis and cyl was not. I don't know what bearing this has on her ability to see but she explained it's the way the light hits the glasses depending on the persons shape of the eye.

Her cyl should be 0.25 and axis 180. It came back at 0 for cyl and 135 for axis.
She told me it could be that the machine isn't accurate.

I am not a professional, but I feel lost, upset and ashamed at my outburst. I apologised to the manager at Specsavers as I felt I had made a scene and couldn't be certain they were wrong.

I am intending to get a copy of the prescription they hold, and I'm going to take it to another opticians to have the glasses assessed again.
I also have an appointment with the hospital soon so will also verify the prescription with them too.

Is that unreasonable of me? Am I over reacting? Does anybody know if the cyl and axis matter?

A part of me just wants to accept that its most likely right and that she probably hasn't been affected. But I am concerned.
I never requested that the lenses be thinned, I cant quite understand why they would do this and not tell me, it has caused confusion.

[Colby43443]

I have astigmatism and was told the axis and cyl are very important by my optician. I too had problems with Specsavers but I got my optician involved and was issued new glasses with the correct axis and cyl. You're right the higher the axis or cyl (I can't remember which) the thicker the lens

[Oblomov16]

You don't need to do this. Just go back and show them the evidence from the second opinion optician. Ask them to correct it.

[Potatoooooo]

Thank you for confirming, I heard him question the cyl to the manager they seemed to whisper a little bit about that. But as I was questioning them with the actual numbers, I think they were just telling me what the strength was.

[PlayOnWurtz]

For me the axis and the cylinder being wrong would make a massive difference as my astigmatism is so marked and has a huge effect on my vision. If I didn't have it I'd not need glasses.

You're right to be angry

I have issues with specsavers and won't ever use them again either

[Potatoooooo]

I couldn't do that as the lady had told me the machine might not have been accurate, so I wanted to make sure I had accurate results before returning.

[PlayOnWurtz]

Here's the difference it could make

[Potatoooooo]

Would surfacing a lense change the axis or cylinder?

[Potatoooooo]

That's a big difference.

[GloGirl]

My DS needs glasses only because of the axis and cylinder. One one lens he has a tiny figure of 0.75 and the other 00 - but he needs glasses because of his axis and cylinder so yes it is important.

Well done on working so hard on her squint - I know what a challenge it is

[hobnobsaremyfavourite]

Specsavers are shit

[PlayOnWurtz]

It's no different I'd imagine to being short sighted. With the right glasses all is well in the world without glasses comes eye strain headaches and squinting.

Get them fixed and make a formal complaint.

[Cuttingthecheese]

I do think you are being a bit U. It's really not worth getting this wound up over. You sound anxious, it's just glasses. Make a complaint with the evidence from the second optician and ask them to correct it.

[Potatoooooo]

cuttingthecheese It's very important. She has a squint, that if not corrected, requires patching or possibly surgery.
If she is not wearing the right prescription, her eye will get worse. Which can lead to a lazy eye, meaning that eye won't work at all.
I don't think that's unreasonable for me to question, they are not just glasses. They are the reason she see's straight.

[WordGetsAround]

I have poor eyesight and would only use a good, local optician who I trust to look after my eyes. I think specsavers is fine if you don't have issues with your eyesight, but best avoided if you do!

Hope you get it sorted soon and maybe find a good optician for your daughter.

[CrohnicallyPregnant]

I think the cyl is short for cylinder, and is the degree to which the sides are thicker than the middle, if you imagine wrapping the lenses around a cylinder a bit so it's kind of curved?

And the axis is the direction the cylinder is 'pointing' ie straight up or horizontal or somewhere in between.

I remember my axis changed once and the optician checked it about 3 times because it's apparently rare for that to happen, because the eye is misshapen the cylinder corrects for how misshapen it is, but the axis says which way the eye is misshapen. So my eye didn't just squish more, it changed the direction of squish!

Hope that makes sense, I looked into it when I was trying to get prescription goggles last year!

[Potatoooooo]

Thank you, that makes a lot of sense.
So it's quite important for the axis and cylinder to be correct as well as the strength. Which I imagine with a squint would make the difference to whether she sees straight??

[Millionsmom]

Yes it would make a huge difference. My contact lenses are for astigmatism, I ran out of lenses when abroad and another optician told me as the power was so weak I could use regular lenses. I tried it, but I couldn't see properly and I had awful headaches. If I moved I felt dizzy.

The pics above are how my vision is without correction. I have no clue if resurfacing the lense would change either, I just know how miserable it is with the wrong correction.
I think the Specsavers should've come clean and apologised. I'd be looking for a new optitian. I now have an independent optician as I had similar problems with another national chain.

[Headunderthecovers]

A 0 cyl can't have a axis as it has zero power.
A 0.25 cyl is the minimum possible and having it in a prescription or not won't affect her vision compared to her +7.75 sph.
The thinner surfaced lens they used should really have been explained to you when you collected her glasses originally. I presume this was just used because this was the type of lens they had available or the person glazing the lenses thought the stronger lens looked too thick and chose a surfaced thinner lens.
Go to another optician and ask for the dispensing optician or optometrist to check them for you. They are the professionals and will be in the best position to reassure you. Make sure you thank them as obviously this isn't their prescription or dispense.
A cosmetic difference in the lenses won't have affected your child's vision but I quite understand your concern.

[dementedpixie]

Was this from an old pair or her current pair? I'd its an old pair of wouldn't worry about it now

[Potatoooooo]

Thank you Headunderthecovers can you explain how a 0 cyl can't have an axis? When she checked the glasses the lense came back with 0.00 cyl and 135 axis, are you saying that it shouldn't say that?

So having a minimum cyl will have no effect on her vision? That's fine if that's correct and i'll be reassured that she is wearing the right prescription. They did confirm that it was +7.75 which is right.

They did not tell me they had surfaced the lense at collection which is why this confusion has happened, I obviously don't know much about lense thickness but comparing her other glasses it didn't look right and wanted to double check that.

[Potatoooooo]

dementedpixie yes it was a previous pair, and I thought the same as you. But then realised she had potentially been wearing these for quite some time which if the prescription wasn't right, would have affected her squint. So I needed that reassurance.

[dementedpixie]

Cyl = amount of astigmatism so if it was 0 then there is no astigmatism and hence no angle would be required

[dementedpixie]

Did it affect her squint though?

[YeOldMa]

I have an astigmatism and if the Optician corrects it to the right prescription, I am completely dysfunctional as the lenses give me migraines. They knock it down a bit for me but the trouble is, I don't get quite as good a vision so I would think your daughter is not getting the best vision she could and I would be complaining.

[RandomMess]

My DH used a local independent opticians, they still managed to screw up his prescription they tried to fob him off for weeks (they were making him dizzy and ill) and he overheard the sales manager talking to the lab on the phone and then he suddenly got his £500 refund

Anyway mistakes happen so be vigilant!