What Is Astigmatism
What is it?
Astigmatism occurs when the front end portion of the eye, technically referred to as the cornea, is not a regular radial circular shape. Instead, its configuration is sort of like that of the back of a spoon – longer in one way than another. Because the cornea is an unpredictable shape, the eye can’t focus light passing through it sharply on to the back of the eye or retina. So vision is fuzzy at all distances.
What causes it?
During prenatal eye development, assorted components influence the shape of it, including transmitted genetic factors and surroundings. It would seem that these factors can cause an irregular curvature of the cornea, although the exact cause isn’t known.
Who’s affected?
Most people have a slight astigmatism
Astigmatism is common and is normally present from birth. Most people have a slight astigmatism – it is rare for the cornea to have developed in a utterly symmetrical mode. But in mild cases, the eye can adjust to focus light adequately.
In many examples of astigmatism the person also has different visual problems like short-sightedness or long-sightedness. Two-thirds of people with short-sightedness also have significant astigmatism.
What are the symptoms?
In severe astigmatism, vision is obscure or distorted whether the person is reading close up or looking further into the distance.
In milder cases the individual may complain their vision is fuzzy at certain distances, that they’ve tired or dry eyes, that it’s a struggle to focus or read, or that they’ve headaches, especially when trying to focus.
How is it diagnosed?
Astigmatism should be diagnosed by a qualified optometrist, ophthalmic surgeon or eye specialist. A good optometric examination should be done to assess the degree and extent of the problem.
Teeny children, who may not be able to respond to the optometrist’s enquiries about what they can see, can be assessed using a test called retinoscopy that involves reflected light.
What’s the treatment?
By and large, you can adequately deal with an astigmatism by using properly prescribed spectacles or contact lenses.
If the astigmatism isn’t too bad, it may not require treatment at all – unless of course it is critical to your work that you have perfect vision or that you are likely to tire, in which case a mild astigmatism may become more of a problem.
There are instances when you will be able to surgically correct your astigmatism using a technique termed refractive surgery.
For some people another option is laser treatment. Try to obtain a balanced view about how good or dangerous laser surgery may be by speaking to your surgeon first.
