What is astigmatism?

Question

My eye doctor told me I have problems with that. What is it?

Answer 1

astigmatism. Here, the eye is slanted at the front, shaped more like a football than a baseball. To be able to see well — either close up or far away — the person needs contact lenses or glasses.

Once people reach 18 and their eyes are fully grown and less likely to change, some people choose to have refractive surgery to correct myopia so they don't have to wear contacts or glasses anymore. Refractive surgery is a procedure — usually done with a laser — that reshapes the eye to change the way light enters it and forms an image, allowing a person to see better. Refractive surgery can sometimes also be done on people with farsightedness or astigmatism once their eyes have matured and stopped growing.

Answer 2

Astigmatism is where your eye needs more than just one power to focus correctly. For example, think of it like a cross, if you didn't have astigmatism, the same number could be put on the vertical and horizontal bars of the cross and would let you see clearly. With astigmatism, the same number would not work so the vertical could have -2.00 and the horizontal would need -1.00 to focus correctly. This is why people with astigmastism have Rx's that look like -2.00-0.75X180 instead of just -2.00. The first Rx tells what the powers are in different meridians and what the axis of those meridians is.

Answer 3

Astigmatism is quite common. Studies have shown that about one in three people suffer from it. It is usually very easily corrected with glasses.

Astigmatism can cause difficulty in seeing fine detail.
In some cases vertical lines and objects such as walls may appear to be leaning over like the Tower of Pisa.

More info at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astigmatism

Hope that helps!

Answer 4

In optics, astigmatism is when an optical system has different foci for rays that propagate in two perpendicular planes. 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.

There are two distinct forms of astigmatism. The first is a third-order aberration, which occurs for objects (or parts of objects) away from the optical axis. This form of aberration occurs even when the optical system is perfectly symmetrical. This is often referred to as a "monochromatic aberration", because it occurs even for light of a single wavelength. This terminology may be misleading, however, as the amount of aberration can vary strongly with wavelength in an optical system.

The second form of astigmatism occurs when the optical system is not symmetric about the optical axis. This may be by design (as in the case of a cylindrical lens), or due to manufacturing error in the surfaces of the components or misalignment of the components. In this case, astigmatism is observed even for rays from on-axis object points. This form of astigmatism is extremely important in ophthalmology, since the human eye often exhibits this aberration due to imperfections in the shape of the cornea or the lens.

Answer 5

It means that your eye's cornea is oval-shaped instead of spherical (round like a basket/soccer ball). It often goes along with near sightedness although I think some people who are far-sighted might also get it.

Nothing serious, you'll just need glasses. But can wear contact lenses as well - lots of new types of contact lenses these days that can address this.

Answer 6

I have the same problem. Its where the vision in your eyes is different. For example one eye might be a little blurry than the other so you need a stronger prescription in that eye. Basically you dont see the same out of both eyes.

Answer 7

1

Answer 8

focus point of the eyes is not accurate, results in fuzzy seeing at all distances. Eyeglasses corrects that.

Answer 9

my daughter has it too. it has something to do with the shape of eye and the way images are projected in the eye....

Answer 10

Lack of depth perception in your vision.