What Is Astigmatism and How Is It Corrected?

Astigmatism is caused by the cornea or lens being a slightly abnormal shape. Normally, this should be round, like a basketball. In astigmatism, it’s more like an egg, or American football, shape. This means that light entering the eye becomes focused in more than one place, instead of being delivered solely to the retina (the light-receiving cells at the back of the eye).

This disrupts the light signals that are transferred to the brain via the optic nerve, causing symptoms like:

• Blurred vision.
• Eye strain.
• Headaches.

It can also create problems with night driving, because of glare, halos, and other anomalies from bright lights.

Astigmatism can be inherited, or it can be caused at any time during life through eye injury, disease, or even eye surgery.

Happily, there are many ways that astigmatism is corrected. How this is best done will depend on various factors, such as the severity, your age, other medical conditions, and—of course—personal choice.

Astigmatism Correction Options

There are three main ways that an ophthalmologist can correct the problem:

1. Eyeglasses.
2. Contact lenses.
3. Surgery: either laser vision correction or implanting an intraocular lens (IOL).

The first two are the most common. Eyeglasses are the cheapest option and can potentially be funded through your health insurance, depending on your policy. Medicare doesn’t routinely cover the cost of eyeglasses for astigmatism. Contact lenses are a good choice for some people, especially if you’re active or just don’t want the bother of wearing eyeglasses.

When it comes to surgery, there are two options: laser eye surgery or implanting an IOL.

1. Laser surgery for astigmatism has been around for many years, with procedures like LASIK extremely common and safe. It works by reshaping the cornea, correcting the curve so that the light only focuses on a single point on the retina. The surgery has advanced dramatically recently, which makes far more people eligible today than in the past. Laser eye surgery can also correct other vision issues, like nearsightedness, at the same time.
2. Implanting an IOL (either with or without astigmatism correction) is only done during a cataract operation. If you need surgery for cataract removal and you also have astigmatism, your surgeon might suggest fitting a special, dual-purpose lens that replaces the diseased cataract lens AND corrects astigmatism. Known as a Toric lens, cataract surgeons can replace the natural lens with this premium option, meaning you won’t need additional eye support, such as eyeglasses, at least for the vision issues caused by the astigmatism.

The Toric capability can be built into different types of IOLs, including a mono (or single) focus lens, an extended focus lens, or a multifocal lens. These lens choices are a whole other topic altogether (you can search our other articles to find out more information), but the key things to know about a Toric lens is that a) it exists, because sadly, many people don’t know that this is an option when they undergo cataract surgery, and b) that it can lead to less independence on eyeglasses.

Having a Toric lens implanted during cataract surgery comes under the banner of a “premium lens”. This means that it can only be fitted by an ophthalmologic surgeon with the advanced training and equipment to perform what’s known as laser-assisted cataract surgery. This brings the additional precision accuracy necessary to perfectly site the lens to achieve its goal.

This is something that the West Boca Eye Center is renowned for. We lead the way in advanced cataract surgery, offering the latest technological advances in astigmatism correction options, cataract surgery, and IOLs. 

Want to find out more? Head to https://www.westbocaeyecenter.com/services and call our team today to book a consultation.