Astigmatism Correction

Astigmatism correction is carried out with the help of glasses, contact lenses and modern laser technologies.

Astigmatism correction is carried out with the help of glasses, contact lenses and modern laser technologies.

Astigmatism is a change in the refractive power of the optical system of the eye . At the same time, both strengthening and weakening of the refractive power, as well as a violation of sphericity, can be observed.

With astigmatism, different meridians of the corneal surface have different refractive power, which leads to the formation of a distorted image of objects. Thus, some areas of the image focus on the retina, while other areas focus behind or in front of the retina.

It is accepted to distinguish between corneal and lens astigmatism. At the same time, corneal astigmatism has a more negative effect on vision than lens astigmatism, since the cornea has a greater refractive power than the lens.

Congenital and acquired astigmatism

Astigmatism can be congenital or acquired. It is worth noting that congenital astigmatism up to 0.5 diopters occurs in most children and refers to the so-called "functional" astigmatism, which does not affect visual acuity. If astigmatism exceeds 1 diopter, it significantly reduces visual acuity and requires special treatment.

Acquired astigmatism, as a rule, develops as a result of serious traumatic injuries (scars) of the cornea, including after surgical interventions.

Methods of astigmatism correction

Today, there are several methods of correcting astigmatism. This includes wearing glasses, contact lenses, and surgical correction of astigmatism using an excimer laser.

Correction using glasses

Glasses are the most common method of vision correction, especially in children. To correct astigmatism, special glasses with cylindrical lenses are used, which can be positive or negative depending on the type of astigmatism.

Glasses are an affordable, safe and fairly easy-to-use method of correcting astigmatism. However, despite all the advantages, glasses can cause a lot of inconvenience to the owner. Yes, glasses often get dirty, fog up, and interfere with sports. Glasses do not provide the patient with 100% vision correction . At the same time, glasses significantly limit side vision and disrupt spatial perception, which is especially important for drivers. In addition, glasses lenses can be a source of danger in case of injuries and accidents.

Contact lenses

Until recently, only rigid contact lenses were used to correct astigmatism. Such lenses not only caused a lot of inconvenience when wearing, but also had a negative effect on the cornea. Today, special toric lenses are used to correct astigmatism, which are selected individually by an ophthalmologist.

The use of contact lenses for the correction of astigmatism is advisable in the case of a low degree of the disease (up to 3 diopters).

The advantages of using contact lenses in comparison with spectacle correction are:

• minimal changes in the fields of vision and the image on the retina;
• optimal conditions for binocular vision;
• compensation of optical aberration and prismatic effect, which is typical for glasses;
• possibility of correction of high corneal astigmatism.

Disadvantages of using contact lenses include difficulties in manipulating lenses, as well as possible complications and inflammatory processes that can be caused by contact lenses .

Laser correction of astigmatism

Recently, the excimer laser is increasingly used to correct astigmatism. The effect of this treatment is achieved by laser vaporization of the corneal layer of a given thickness. With myopic astigmatism, operations are used in which the laser beam acts in the center of the optical zone. These are photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) and laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK). The LASIK operation is performed for 10-20 minutes under local anesthesia.