Firmoo > Help Center > How to get your prescription

How to get your prescription

In 1978, the Federal Trade Commission passed a regulation rule known as Ophthalmic Practice Rule, or Eyeglass Rule. The rule requires eye doctors (optometrists or ophthalmologists) to give patients their eyeglass prescriptions at no extra cost. Based on the rule, you can ask for a copy of your prescription from your eye doctor after an eye exam.

The tricky part of the rule is that it doesn’t specify if the eyeglasses prescription includes Pupillary Distance (PD) or not. In most of the cases, upon request of measuring your PD, your eye doctor will include the PD in the prescription. Recently some industry giants are calling on the Eye Care Professionals (ECPs) to embrace the online technology and support the online optical stores to serve our patients in a better and more affordable way. PD is a critical number for us to produce the lenses and fit the lenses into the frame to match the optical centers of your eyes.

Though some online stores recommend ways of measuring your PD by yourself in front of mirror or by your family member using a regular ruler, we strongly suggest you get this number from your optician or eye doctor. It may take some time or charge some fee, but it is worth for your eye health.

find doctor Go to Firmoo Eye Care Directory
to Find Your Local Eye Doctor