Does lasic surgery cure a stigmatism?!


Question: Does lasic surgery cure a stigmatism?
Ok, so my eye doc told me that contacts cannot cure a stigmatism.
He also told me that a stigmatism is an irregular curvature of the eye.
I've heard elsewhere that lasic surgery can cure the blurry-ness i have caused by the stigmatism.
How is this possible? If a stigmatism is the shape of my eye, how does taking off a layer fix that? Was I misinformed?

Answers:

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

My eye doctor told me that it COULD cure astigmatism over time. But yes they told me with Lasik, they will reshape the cornea and you should see well again. But I am going to stick with contacts until I am older.

I found out that I have an eye astigmatism today.



Naz...
I can only go on what you've understood from your Eye Doc.... Perhaps you misunderstood.. perhaps your eye doc is a poor communicator...
So here's the picture:

For an optical system to focus light clearly, all the surfaces that light goes through (or interacts with) must be SYMMETRICALLY CURVED - like a soccer ball. The surfaces are the Cornea (front of eye), the lens and finally the retina.

Now.. biological tissue is NEVER perfect.. and if these surfaces are not symmetrical like a soccer ball, but say 'squashed' to resemble a football surface... then it won't form perfectly clear images anymore.

This non-symmetrical/non-spherical change to the optica surfaces (mostly cornea) causes blurry vision, an dthis refractive error is known as ASTIGMATISM.

Now the LASER is able to burn off tissues almost cell by cell... so think of it as a cutting tool.. no different to a cutting tool reshaping wood.. if you have an oval wood bowl, the shaping tool, with a lathe can recut it to form a round bowl... so long as there's enough wood (or cornea) to work with.

So... as for your eye doc's advice...
"contacts cannot cure a stigmatism"... perhaps he/she means YOUR particular astigmatism... eg: if your astigmatism is too high, then even the best CL's may not correct it well enough to give you good vision... or it will be too uncomfortable (softs or hard lenses). Now if you're really unlucky and have IRREGULAR astigmatism... (that's like a football that's been deformed by sun/rain..he..he..), then nothing will correct it besides special (laser assisted) surgeries, or even corneal transplants.

"stigmatism is an irregular curvature of the eye." Your doc meant it to be irreg. curvature of the CORNEA.. not the eye... and since the laser works on the cornea.. then it's easy for it to cure it.

I hope this has cleared up your mis-information.



Cure, correct, fix, yada yada. It's all terminolog

Yea, you can wear contacts and see just fine even with your astigmatism. did you get some?

lasik you'd have to see your doctor for, but i had a friend who had the surgery and he had astigmatism and he can see fine without anything now. i know the surgery doesn't work for everyone though

Footprintz - how do YOU know what the doc said? There's misinformed people everywhere. he could be an old doc stuck in his ways or something



Britter has misunderstood the whole question.

Contacts will CORRECT your astigmatism while you wear them , but contacts won't " CURE " it....which is what you said your Dr. told you.

Your Dr. never said contacts wouldn't " correct " your astigmatism...he said it won't " cure " it , which is right.

The only way to eliminate it is with laser surgery by reshaping the cornea.

Optician



First of all, it is possible you misunderstood your doctor and are getting the words and terms mixed up. Don't feel stupid or embarrassed about it -- it happens ALL the time! That's why doctors have to go to 8+ years of college; it takes a long time to learn all the technical stuff.

However, if your eye doctor truly told you that contact lenses cannot fix your astigmatism, that doctor is wrong (in most cases).

Have you ever looked at your reflection on the back of the spoon? One direction of your face is squished, and one direction is stretched out.That is kind of what astigmatism does. One direction has more power than the other. There are lots of different kinds of astigmatism, but the majority of the population has regular astigmatism that is easily fixed by wearing contact lenses or glasses.

So I can't say for sure what you have because I don't know your prescription, but chances are you have regular astigmatism like most of the population. There are only very few cases where the astigmatism is irregular, which in that case you could still order custom toric RGP contact lenses.

Yes, LASIK surgery can correct astigmatism but only if you are a candidate for the surgery. There are many "qualifications" you have to meet to be eligible for the surgery such as your cornea must be a certain depth, you must not have any eye conditions (such as keratoconus) that are contraindicated, most likely you don't want to be over the age of 40 because after the surgery you would need reading glasses, etc and so on. Those are just a few things to consider.

LASIK surgery can correct astigmatism in whatever orientation you have (if you are a candidate, like I said above).

If your eye doctor truly told you that contact lenses can't fix your astigmatism, I would find a new eye doctor! And there is no reason you can't have an exam to see if you are a candidate for LASIK.

I am an optometry intern and I had LASIK about 3 years ago.




The consumer health information on answer-health.com is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.
Copyright © 2007-2011 answer-health.com -   Terms of Use -   Contact us

Health Categories