Taking the Stigma out of Astigmatism

If you look up the definition of astigmatism in the dictionary online, I am most impressed with the great variety of definitions that exist, making the situation even more confusing.  Here is one of my favorites: An eye disorder caused by uneven curvature of the eyeball that motivates light rays to bend, targeting more than one point of the retina, instead of a single spot. This causes blurry vision, vague shadows on characters when reading, and slight double vision.  Or another more esoteric one is: An optical system with astigmatism is one where rays that propagate in two perpendicular planes have different foci. If an optical system with astigmatism is used to form an image of a cross, the vertical and horizontal lines will be in sharp focus at two different distances.

While some people who have astigmatism, especially severe astigmatism have a structural defect in their eye that is not easily fixed, for most, modern LASIK treatment   can effectively treat this condition.  What is amazing is how perfectly the eye is formed during the early period of embryonic development and how little it is really off from being a perfect sphere even in cases of astigmatism.  This is really the key to this condition, in that the eye in its formation has to become a perfect optical shape, and if there is any uneven or oval shape, then there is astigmatism.  Most commonly the uneven shape is in the cornea or surface layer, but sometimes the internal lens can contribute as well.

The bottom line is that people with astigmatism have thick and funny looking glasses, they are difficult to fit in contact lenses (except for hard ones) and up until recently were not great candidates for laser vision correction.

Things have changed.

Now we can treat astigmatism up to 6 diopters in amount, with or without near or far sightedness.  What this means is about 99% of all people who need vision correction for clear distance vision and have healthy eyes and bodies are potential candidates for laser vision correction with the expectation of much improved vision.  Why is this so?  The combination of improved diagnostic methods and more importantly surgical methods have made treating astigmatism much more routine.  Here are the big advances.

In order to perform LASIK we need to make a very thin flap, and when the eye has an oval shape, this is much more difficult using the older style blade technology or microkeratome.  It is harder to get a well centered and even flap that is round on an oval shaped eyeball.  With the newer femtosecond lasers, this is much easier since lasers can cut no matter what the underlying shape.  This is even more true with the Visumax, which can attach well to almost any eyeball and make a well centered and perfectly round flap.  This crucial first step is so important in getting consistent results regardless of the prescription.

The second step involves being able to restore the shape from oval to round and here the newer small spot scanning lasers are critical in achieving this type of result.  All of the newer custom lasers are able to do this to a much better extent than a decade ago, and the lasers we use have the smallest and most controlled spot placement making this more accurate.

So before believing that the astigmatism in your eyes is a stigma that you will have to live with forever, please investigate the possibility that you might be helped to see clearly with current technology and at a center which is very experienced in this type of problem.  It is impossible to make a recommendation without a complete evaluation and that is why we offer no charge consultations to help patients understand their unique situation and options available to them.  Some of our happiest patients are those who had severe astigmatism with blurry doubled vision at all distances and were very unhappy that they had eyes unable to see without thick glasses.  After their procedure, most are greatly improved and have an improved self image now that the stigma of astigmatism has been removed.