There are millions of people wearing contact lenses to correct their vision or substitute for eye glasses.

People have many choices in how, where, and from whom to buy their prescription eye wear: providers such as optometrists, ophthalmologists, and dispensing opticians, and sellers such as specialty shops, large wholesale stores, mail-order and online retailers.

In addition to considering the cost and convenience when you are buying contact lenses, we recommend that you:

• Get your prescription. Your eye doctor or care provider must give you a copy of your contact lenses prescriptions regardless. You should get your contact lenses prescription when your fitting is complete. Fitting contacts could take more than one appointment.

• Keep your prescription. File it with your other medical history or records. Always keep your prescriptions current in a convenient place.

• Send a copy of prescription. When you order contact lenses from a seller other than your eye care provider, do not send the original copy of your contact lenses prescription.  Just fax or send a copy of it.

• Verify your prescription for contacts. If you can’t fax or send a copy of your prescription directly to the seller, ask the seller to verify your prescription with your eye doctor or eye care provider. Start the process by giving the seller certain information about your prescription: the information you need (for example, the type of lenses, their manufacturer, power, base curve, and diameter) is on your prescription. The seller must verify your prescription with your eye care provider before filling your order.

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