Astigmatism

This is a very commonly asked question. First of all, I do not want for you to panic when you hear the word Astigmatism. It is Not a disease. Rather, astigmatism refers to the shape of your eye looking more like a football then a soccer ball. See, that is not so scary there! So when light hits your retina (the wall paper on the back of your eye), it hits at two focal points instead of just one. What that means to you is that you are unable to see things clearly until you are corrected with a visual aid such as glasses with astigmatism correction or toric contact lenses to fuse all the images into one clear concise image.

In some cases when you have an abnormal amount of astigmatism and when the curvature of your cornea is irregular, this could be indicative of certain corneal ectatic conditions such as keratoconus or pellucid degeneration. Your Doctor will discuss this further if that were to be the case.

​I have astigmatism, could I still wear contact lenses?
Certainly! There are toric contact lenses that corrects astigmatism. In special cases where your astigmatism is higher, we could talk about Synergeyes hybrid lenses. These are customized lenses that are made and ordered just for you and your prescription. Give us a call to talk about this option and if this is something you are interested in.

My eyes get really dry and irritated with contact lenses, what are my options when I still want to wear them?
Daily contacts are ideal for patients with dry eyes. These are contacts that you wear for one day, and at the end of the day, you toss out. Next day roll by, you put on a fresh new pair. If your eyes are still dry with these contact lenses, we'll discuss treating your dry eyes with medication to better increase your contact lens comfort.

I am now having some trouble reading up close, and I never have this problem before when I was younger. Are there contact lenses that will help me with that too?
Definitely. Depending on what your prescription is, mono-vision or multi-focal contact lenses are options to help you see better up close. Soft and Synergeyes Multifocal lenses are also available. Please bring this up to your Doctor when you are in the office, and we'll better address this for you. There are always options. It is just the matter of how motivated your are to get into these styles of contacts.