Does astigmatism affect contact lenses?
Ordinary contact lenses are used to help individuals who suffer from long and shortsightedness to see with more clarity. Some mistakenly think that they’re able to be used to treat conditions such as astigmatism. In this blog post, we look at what astigmatism is, does astigmatism affect contact lenses and why it’s an important issue to treat.
What is astigmatism?
Before understanding whether or not you can wear contact lenses whilst suffering from astigmatism, it’s worth ensuring you know exactly what is astigmatism. It’s a common condition that generally causes blurred vision over both long and short distances and is often described as having an elliptical or “rugby ball shaped” eye. It’s typically a treatable condition – with contact lenses often used to help.
Does astigmatism affect contact lenses?
As astigmatism means that our corneas are mismatched, a special set of lenses is required to correct associated symptoms. In some cases, an optician recommends that a patient uses toric lenses, rather than the normal lenses that they may ordinarily be used to. This is because a toric lens is able to change to focus of your eye, correcting cases of blurred vision. They’re able to do this as they have both horizontal and vertical axis that focus light through the cornea to give a clear image on the retina. Toric lenses are also made to a different design so that the corrective power offered at different angles is able to ensure comfortable vision.
Normal lenses are unable to work in the same way as they’re unable to compensate for the corneal curvature in a sufficient way, meaning that your vision will be blurred.
How important is it to treat astigmatism?
Astigmatism is an important condition to correct whether this is surgery, contact lenses or corrective glasses, as all methods can make an important contribution to your daily activities.
The key to treating astigmatism (if using contact lenses) is to consider the choices to collaboration with your optician. Ordinary contact lenses may not provide the desired results due to the aforementioned reason. For some cases of astigmatism, an optician may recommend rigid gas-permeable (RGP) toric contacts, as they’re a durable alternative of complex cases.
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