Astigmatism is a fairly common condition of the eye with approximately 1 in 6 people being affected in the United States.
First of all, astigmatism affects the cornea of the eye, which is a transparent layer forming the front of the eye.
A healthy cornea is spherical and is usually compared to a basketball.
Astigmatism is when the cornea becomes misshapen and begins to look more like a football.
So what does this mean?Most astigmatisms have two curves, one that is steeper and one that is flatter.
The cornea, which usually allows light passing through the eye to focus at one point, now causes the light passing through the eye to focus in more than one spot.
This causes your brain to try to interpret the two images and results in blurry vision.
Now this is different than being nearsighted or farsighted, which is a matter of light focusing in front of or behind the retina.
So now that you know what astigmatism is, lets talk about why you might have it.
Many people that have astigmatisms were born with misshapen corneas, which were more oblong than spherical, so you can thank your parents and the genes they gave you.
There are also other causes of astigmatism like excessive pressure being put on the corneas by the eye lids, increased use of they eyes for up-close work, and injury to the eye or cornea.
Often people who have surgery on their eyes will have temporary astigmatism until the cornea has healed completely.
Lucky for us, especially those of us will bad genes, astigmatism is easily corrected by wearing contact lenses, or other corrective lenses.
First of all, astigmatism affects the cornea of the eye, which is a transparent layer forming the front of the eye.
A healthy cornea is spherical and is usually compared to a basketball.
Astigmatism is when the cornea becomes misshapen and begins to look more like a football.
So what does this mean?Most astigmatisms have two curves, one that is steeper and one that is flatter.
The cornea, which usually allows light passing through the eye to focus at one point, now causes the light passing through the eye to focus in more than one spot.
This causes your brain to try to interpret the two images and results in blurry vision.
Now this is different than being nearsighted or farsighted, which is a matter of light focusing in front of or behind the retina.
So now that you know what astigmatism is, lets talk about why you might have it.
Many people that have astigmatisms were born with misshapen corneas, which were more oblong than spherical, so you can thank your parents and the genes they gave you.
There are also other causes of astigmatism like excessive pressure being put on the corneas by the eye lids, increased use of they eyes for up-close work, and injury to the eye or cornea.
Often people who have surgery on their eyes will have temporary astigmatism until the cornea has healed completely.
Lucky for us, especially those of us will bad genes, astigmatism is easily corrected by wearing contact lenses, or other corrective lenses.