There has always been a negative “stigma” towards astigmatism. Word play intended. I apologize if that was lame. Well what is astigmatism? Astigmatism means that your eyeball is not perfectly round and it’s more like an oval egg shape. This oval shape causes the light to focus to two distinct points in the back of the eye. This causes blurred vision. The good news is, it’s not a health problem but a refractive problem.
In the beginning of time, they were not able to make glasses with astigmatism and that’s why most people didn’t want to have astigmatism. But technology improved and corrected this problem. Later, astigmatism was not able to be corrected by contact lenses. Again, the contact lens companies were able to create contact lenses with astigmatism. Finally, if you had astigmatism, they were not able to correct it by laser surgery. And again, the technology changed with time and lasers are able to correct astigmatism.
How common is astigmatism? About 27{4422c3e9d6d956ffe17c4a9703f8867adf328a271a08c00de098d82d34d0cfb5} of the population has at least -1.00 D or more in astigmatism. In addition, Asians and Hispanics havw the greatest prevalence at 35{4422c3e9d6d956ffe17c4a9703f8867adf328a271a08c00de098d82d34d0cfb5}, Caucasians at 24{4422c3e9d6d956ffe17c4a9703f8867adf328a271a08c00de098d82d34d0cfb5} and African American at 20{4422c3e9d6d956ffe17c4a9703f8867adf328a271a08c00de098d82d34d0cfb5}.
Do I need to astigmatism in my contacts? The answer depends on the amount you have. If you have less than -0.75 D, usually the doctor does not need to prescribe contacts with astigmastism.
I hope this article sheds some light on astigmatism.
Vancouver Kerrisdale Optometrist
Contact Avenue Eyecare to book your appointment today.