Once you’ve got your prescription, you can order your lenses online. For contact lenses for short and long-sightedness you should only need 3 things:

Power: This is the level of vision correction you need to see clearly

Base curve: The measurement of your eye’s natural curvature so that the lenses sit securely on your eye. This is usually set by the manufacturer but there may be more than one choice.

Diameter: How wide the contact lenses should be

If you’ve ever been told by an optician that you have astigmatism, you’ll need a different type of contact lens. Toric contact lenses are shaped to fit eyes with astigmatism comfortably and securely. With a toric lens prescription you’ll need to check two extra measurements:

Cylinder: A number in measures of 0.25, this is the extra amount of vision correction needed to treat astigmatism.

Axis: This is a number between 0 and 180 that tells you what angle your correction needs to be.

Just like with regular lenses, you can have different prescriptions for each eye and even one eye with astigmatism and one without. All toric lenses have the words ‘for astigmatism’ or ‘toric’ in the name so if you do have only one eye with astigmatism, use a toric lens for one eye and use the same brand of regular lenses for the other.

If you’ve got presbyopia and have been struggling with reading things close-up recently or use reading glasses, you might want to try multifocal contact lenses. These provide clear vision at all distances in just one lens, so you can always enjoy clear sight. On top of power, diameter and base curve, your prescription will also include:

Addition: The amount of correction needed for near sight.

Dominant eye: Your dominant eye will be labelled with a 'D'.

Learn more on how to read your prescription.

6 important things to remember when you're new to contact lenses