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Astigmatism

A

Alone

Diamond Member
Well, I think I just found out I have astigmatism in an unfortunate way.

I brought my prescription to an Optometrist to get some contacts (I've never had any before), and she looked at it and said "We'll have to order them in, since you're toric."

At the time, I didn't know what that meant. I later looked it up, and, well, it appears I probably has Astigmatism.

I looked it up and I don't really understand in plain wording what it is. Any simple definitions for the not-so-medically inclined?
 
Your cornea is not perfectly shaped, causing light to not all focus at the same part of the eye. It's very common and not a big deal except that contacts usually have to be ordered in advance.

Regular eye topography:
oculus_pentacam.png


Astigmatism eye topography:
zeiss_atlas_topographer.png


It could be worse. My eye looks something like this:
Cutout&


Fuck keratoconus.
 
Last edited:
Alone said:
Well, I think I just found out I have astigmatism in an unfortunate way.

I brought my prescription to an Optometrist to get some contacts (I've never had any before), and she looked at it and said "We'll have to order them in, since you're toric."

At the time, I didn't know what that meant. I later looked it up, and, well, it appears I probably has Astigmatism.

I looked it up and I don't really understand in plain wording what it is. Any simple definitions for the not-so-medically inclined?
Click to expand...

I has astigmatism too. In fact, I still have it. 🙂
 
rcpratt said:
Your cornea is not perfectly shaped, causing light to not all focus at the same part of the eye. It's very common and not a big deal except that contacts usually have to be ordered in advance.
Click to expand...

But what difference should I physically notice? I mean, other than requiring vision correction in the first place, are there more negative effects before of it?
 
Your eye's shape is non-standard and thus your lenses need to be able to accommodate this. Generally, toric lenses have little weights on either side and when you blink the lens is put back correctly on the eye. Toric contacts are fucking terrible and I eventually gave up wearing contacts because I have an astigmatism in one eye and I could never properly focus with it.

As far as effects... I really don't notice much different between my eyes except that reading very contrasting text on backgrounds (ie black background with white text) is extremely difficult and gives me a headache.
 
Alone said:
But what difference should I physically notice? I mean, other than requiring vision correction in the first place, are there more negative effects before of it?
Click to expand...
You're going to have some additional blurring or trouble focusing unless you wear toric lenses. It's perfectly correctable with torics. There is a very wide range of astigmatisms, so you could see almost no difference.

Some people say torics are slightly less comfortable, but I never noticed a difference. And it's nothing near the quarter that I have in my eye now.
 
Platypus said:
Your eye's shape is non-standard and thus your lenses need to be able to accommodate this. Generally, toric lenses have little weights on either side and when you blink the lens is put back correctly on the eye. Toric contacts are fucking terrible and I eventually gave up wearing contacts because I have an astigmatism in one eye and I could never properly focus with it.
Click to expand...

That's a bit of a change. I thought initially you were happy with the toric lenses. Guess the honeymoon wore off.
 
I need to get torics at some point, after wearing the regulars for a few months. There's definitely a loss of sharpness going from glasses to non-toric contacts.
 
Platypus said:
Your eye's shape is non-standard and thus your lenses need to be able to accommodate this. Generally, toric lenses have little weights on either side and when you blink the lens is put back correctly on the eye. Toric contacts are fucking terrible and I eventually gave up wearing contacts because I have an astigmatism in one eye and I could never properly focus with it.

As far as effects... I really don't notice much different between my eyes except that reading very contrasting text on backgrounds (ie black background with white text) is extremely difficult and gives me a headache.
Click to expand...

Toric lenses suck, but they are not the only solution for correcting astigmatism with contact lenses. From what my optometrist told me, the Acuvue Advanced for Astigmatism are shaped a certain way on the inside of the lens so it doesn't move out of focus. Toric lenses, I would blink and sometimes the lens would move out of place.
 
Platypus said:
Your eye's shape is non-standard and thus your lenses need to be able to accommodate this. Generally, toric lenses have little weights on either side and when you blink the lens is put back correctly on the eye. Toric contacts are fucking terrible and I eventually gave up wearing contacts because I have an astigmatism in one eye and I could never properly focus with it.

As far as effects... I really don't notice much different between my eyes except that reading very contrasting text on backgrounds (ie black background with white text) is extremely difficult and gives me a headache.
Click to expand...

It really requires a competent optometrist who can judge a proper fitting astigmatic lens.

I just got a new prescription, and more importantly, quality contacts for comfort even through dry eye syndrome.

I only have mild astigmatism in one eye, so when the lens shifts it gets really apparent with strange effects on my vision.
The lens they have me on a trial with right now (Ciba Vision Air Optix, one being an Air Optix for Astigmatism), fit perfectly. They judged the lens size, where they sat naturally, the degree of freedom of movement, and specifically the astigmatic lens' capability to maintain stability. All perfect.

After initially being put in my eye, it's not centered immediately. But after a few moments and blinking, it gets in place and stays there.
I love these contacts. 🙂
 
vi edit said:
That's a bit of a change. I thought initially you were happy with the toric lenses. Guess the honeymoon wore off.
Click to expand...

I should qualify this. Accuvue made a toric lens that fit my eyes perfectly (and still do) but they are old technology and dry the hell out of my eye. I tried 3 or 4 brands afterwords trying to find a good one and none of them fit as well as the Accuvue. So it's really a compromise.. super dry eye that gets irritated or eye that cannot focus and gets irritated. I switched back to glasses.
 
I'm not really sure what astigmatism means either, I've read different definintions and none of them are really the same as what I'm experiencing yet when I describe my symptoms, I'm told I have astigmatism.

Anyway, for me it's very mild but the way I describe it, everytime I look at a light source like trafflic lights, lamp lights, etc... instead of seeing a circle bulb of light, I see a star-ish light(for normal people, you can replicate this by looking at a light and squinting). Other than that, I really don't have a problem with my vision, I'm otherwise 20/20. Oddly enough, at night, when it's darker, things I see somewhat get a bit blurry but still readable.
 
What it means for you is that if you've never had contacts before, or are moving regularly from glasses to contacts, you'll be disappointed with the contacts. Glasses can be milled to exact specifications, whereas torics and contacts only match certain ranges. While that's close enough for normal contacts, Astigmatism contacts cover far less ranges for dealing with the Axis shift. What that essentially means is that while your glasses will be perfect, your contacts will tend to be slightly sub par. Like a slight fuzz to everything.

I have bad astigmatism, and while I wear both contacts and glasses, I wear my glasses most often because my contacts aren't really good enough for the hours of reading I have to do from text books and computer monitors.
 
I've worn glasses maybe 5 times in my life. I really don't care for them, so I don't wear them.

Hopefully I can get used to contacts, because I hate glasses.
 
Astigmatism means the radius of the curve of your eye is not the same in all directions. Think of a barrel. Its curved in the vertical direction and it's curved in the horizontal direction, but the degree of curvature is not the same both ways.

So it means that you need a different strength of correction in one direction vs the other. This is easy to achieve with glasses because they don't rotate. They are always aligned with your eyes in the same way.

But contacts can rotate on your eyes, so you need contacts that have some method of keeping them in the same alignment. This can be done with the shape of the lens or it can be done by having one part of the contact heavier than the others so it will keep that part pointed down.

I've got moderate astigmatism and I tried several different brands of lenses. With all of them, they would frequently shift out of alignment. Sometimes I could get them back by blinking several times. Other times, I had a hard time getting them back in alignment. It was enough of a pain in the ass that I ended up just getting glasses instead.

They have to order them because unlike regular contacts where it's a simple plus or minus correction, toric lenses have a distinct x and y correction and an angle. So there are way too many combinations for most places to keep them in stock.
 
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