What is astigmatism?!
Question: i went to the eye doctor to get contacts and he told me that i have astigmatism but i dont know what it is
Answers: i went to the eye doctor to get contacts and he told me that i have astigmatism but i dont know what it is
my sister has this condition, she has blurred vision due to this. astigmatism is when the cornea is not properly shaped, its usually occurs in childhood, and many people don't know they have it. This website is very imformative.
http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions...
its when on cornea is smaller than the other one. so they will have to make special contacts for you
for your eyes only....
just in http://www.greateyes.blogspot.com
Basically, an astigmatism is when the eye rugby ball shaped rather the than round. Thats the best way to describe it. I have an astigmatism too and need special contacts. it makes the eye sight blurrier and make contacts slightly more expensive.
:) best thing to do if you want a better explanation is to talk to your optician. it has things to do with your prescription and the axis that your lenses need too be cut at. its quite technical! not to worry though its not a bad thing necessarily!
It's only a particular version of short or long sight.
It's not a disease, and the cornea is not irregular.
(There's actually a version called "Irregular astigmatism" to cover the exceptions)
Let's get away from optics and footballs for a moment.
If you looked at the front of an office building you might say "It's a hundred feet across"
Now if it was as wide as it was tall, that one measurement would do.
But you might have to say "It's a hundred feet across, and forty feet taller than that."
That extra bit is equivalent to the astigmatism.
The amount by which one number doesn't describe the optical correction of the eye in every direction.
So the three numbers of an eye's Rx are
(e.g. -2.00DS /-1.50 DC ax 175)
Firstly the amount to get one meridian of the eye in focus.
If everything is then clear, then there is no astigmatism, and there are no further numbers.
But if just -2.00 was given instead of the above, on a letter E, while the vertical stroke would be clear, the horizontals would still be blurred.
The astigmatic component is the amount required to bring that second meridian into focus without afffecting the first.
The third number is the direction in which to add the astigmatism, since it doesn't have to be exactly horizontal or vertical. It's in degrees, so 175 is no "worse" than 10.
In contacts, astigmatism can make it slightly more complicated and expensive. "One number" contact lenses usually spin slightly in the eye. Which matters not at all, since they have the same prescription every way up.
But an astigmatic soft contact lens* not only has to have two precription strengths on it, it has to have a mechanism to make sure it stays in one orientation. There are two or thee ways of doing this, but they don't all work on all eyes, so fitting astigmatic "toric" contact lenses can need more trials.
*It's different with rigid gas permeable lenses. Usually.
It means your cornea's are football shaped which causes your vision to be somewhat blurry. They have special contacts for this, but the best way is glasses for you clearest vision.