Question
My current contact lenses/glasses prescription states the following:
OD Power -2.25 -1.75x170 BC 8.6 Diam 14.5, Axis for eyeglasses 172
OS Power -2.50 -0.75x180 BC 8.6 Diam 14.5, Axis for eyeglasses 176
Previous prescription per the old contact lenses box:
Power -3.25 BC 8.6 Diam 14.2
First, I would like to know if an eye prescription can get better with time as it seems to have per my prescriptions. Second, my astigmatism is in my right eye and this doctor wrote it for my left eye. Fortunately, I have not had the eyeglasses prescription filled. I have never sued someone, but I feel the old prescription was written incorrectly as in too strong of a prescription and now the current prescription was written inversely. Both were written by the same doctor's office but different doctor.
Answer
Hi Kasey -
Between your previous Rx and the new one, there is only a small amount of "improvement" and yes, eyes can get better, or less nearsighted over time - especially if you are between the ages of say, 30 and 50.
The reason the new Rx is not as much weaker as it seems is because the old Rx did not contain any correction for the astigmatism and the new one does. When you add astigmatism correction, you decrease the sphere amount (listed as POWER on the RX you supplied) to some extent to compensate - so in a way your new Rx is more like a "six of one; half-dozen of the other" type of change, rather than being really much weaker than the old one. In many cases, a doctor fitting contact lenses on someone with a small amount of astigmatism will try to ignore the astigmatism and just increase the overall base power to compensate. This is because the general rule is you want to fit the person with the simplest lens type that will work.
Now, as for your astigmatism, you have some in EACH eye, based on the contact lens RX - just the right eye has more than the left. There does not seem to be anything abnormal about this.
I don't know what is making you question the validity of your Rx, but there does not seem to be anything wrong. Just that the doctor who wrote the old contact lens Rx seemed to feel you could get away with not correcting the astigmatism in the contact lenses and the doctor who wrote the new one felt you needed to have it corrected in BOTH eyes. If you can see with the new contact lenses, there is no reason to question the new glasses prescription.
I feel very bad when I hear someone speak of suing a doctor. Most of them are doing their best to help you and are in the field because they really do want the best thing for their patients. So far as I know, you cannot sue anyone anyway unless you suffered an actual loss because of what they did - like you got in an accident because you could not see properly, for example.
If you are suffering a loss of trust in the office you have been using - and don't feel you can ask questions that help you understand what they are trying to do for you, it might be better to choose a different office for your next exam.
