Astigmatism

Astigmatism occurs when the cornea is shaped more like a football (a steeper curve in one direction than the other) than a perfectly round baseball, and often occurs in combination with myopia (nearsightedness) and hyperopia (farsightedness). This causes light to focus in more than one point on the retina, resulting in blurry and distorted vision.  It is a very common type of refractive error in the eye, and not a disease!

Light focuses in more than one point on the
retina causing blurry and distorted vision at all distances
(Roll your mouse over the image to change it)

Symptoms of astigmatism:

• Blurry, distorted vision at all distances
• Straight lines appear wavy

Causes of astigmatism:

• Heredity
• Lid swelling such as caused by a stye
• Corneal scars
• Keratoconus

Diagnosing astigmatism:

Your doctor of optometry can conduct a refractive evaluation to determine whether your eyes focus light rays exactly on the retina at distance and near. A visual acuity test will determine your ability to see sharply and clearly at all distances. Treatment of astigmatism:

Glasses and contact lenses are used by many for the correction of astigmatism. Special toric or astigmatic soft lenses can be used, along with gas permeable hard lenses for higher degrees of astigmatism. 

If you are about to undergo cataract surgery, relaxing incisions can be made to reduce the amount of astigmatism after surgery, thus making your distance vision clearer without any glasses.

Other types of refractive errors include: nearsightedness, farsightedness and presbyopia.