My vision is mildly blurred. I recently went to the eye doctor and
found out that I have astigmatism. I got eyeglasses, and things are
much clearer. However, when I tilt my head to the side, everything
looks skewed. I was wondering if there are people here with
astigmatism and can possibly please post their thoughts about this --
whether it is normal or not -- and comments about astigmatism would
also be helpful.
By the way, my doctor says I just have to get used to the glasses, but
seriously, how can you get used to the things having an oblique or
slanting view? If I look straight without tilting my head everything
is fine. Do people with astigmatism have to keep their heads perfectly
straight and move like robots to avoid tilting?
Thank you in advance. I look forward to resourceful responses.
Mike Tyner - 26 Nov 2004 22:51 GMT
> My vision is mildly blurred. I recently went to the eye doctor and
> found out that I have astigmatism. I got eyeglasses, and things are
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> whether it is normal or not -- and comments about astigmatism would
> also be helpful.
It's easier to explain specifically if you post your prescription. But the
principles are that 1) every spectacle lens with focusing power has the side
effect of magnifying or minifying. 2) Lenses for (only) astigmatism have
power in one meridian only, stretching or shrinking the image in the
direction dictated by the orientation of the power meridian.
By "meridian" we mean a line across the lens, like 12:00-6:00 or 2:00-8:00
on the clockface.
If your glasses have (minus) power in the vertical meridian (12-6) and none
in the 3-9 meridian, objects will appear short and squatty, but not tilted.
If your lenses have minus in the horizontal meridian only, objects will
appear tall and thin, shrunken horizontally, but not tilted.
"Tilt" occurs when the power meridian is oblique, like 1:00-7:00 or
10:00-4:00.
> By the way, my doctor says I just have to get used to the glasses, but
> seriously, how can you get used to the things having an oblique or
> slanting view? If I look straight without tilting my head everything
> is fine. Do people with astigmatism have to keep their heads perfectly
> straight and move like robots to avoid tilting?
The distortion is constant; it doesn't really change when you tilt your
head. Tilting your head probably brings the major distortion to a purely
vertical or horizontal meridian, where the distortion shrinks or magnifies
objects orthogonally, 12-6 or 3-9, without producing the visual "tilt" you
get at oblique angles. You can demonstrate this by folding up your glasses,
looking through one lens and rotating the lens around your line-of-sight.
The tilt will follow the orientation of the lens, and the vision will only
be sharpest at one orientation (actually two - upside down works also.)
And yes, usually your brain learns to re-interpret tilted images as "normal"
after a week or three. If it doesn't, sometimes we have to remake the lens
with less sharpness and therefore less tilt. Close-fitting frames produce
less distortion, just as a magnifying glass magnifies less when it's closer
to objects.
-MT
Rushtown - 27 Nov 2004 19:15 GMT
>Subject: Questions About Astigmatism
>From: dgtester@yahoo.com (dg)
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>whether it is normal or not -- and comments about astigmatism would
>also be helpful.
You can get the answer by looking in the mirror when you tilt your head. You
will see that your eyeball does not tilt as much. Therefore the orientation of
your eye to your head and your glasses changes. It's the same as if you tilt
your glasses. So the angle for correction of the astigmatism gets off a bit
when you do tilt your head.
Solution. Don't tilt your head
Mike Tyner - 27 Nov 2004 20:56 GMT
> You can get the answer by looking in the mirror when you tilt your head.
> You
> will see that your eyeball does not tilt as much. Therefore the
> orientation of
> your eye to your head and your glasses changes.
If this happened to any significant degree with glasses for astigmatism, the
vision would blur.
Normal positional cyclotorsion is only 6 - 7 degrees with 45 degrees of head
tilt. 7 degrees of difference would be tough to observe in the mirror.
With cylinder of -1.25, I don't detect any blur when I tilt my head 45
degrees, nor can I see the cyclotorsion in the mirror.
-MT
Rishi Giovanni Gatti - 27 Nov 2004 22:42 GMT
> Solution. Don't tilt your head
Solution: just do as the terrorist do, keep a good kinfe and slice
away your head.
It won't tilt anymore, and a great butchery would have been performed
again and again for the solace of the criminals who like it.
Ann - 28 Nov 2004 10:07 GMT
>>Subject: Questions About Astigmatism
>>From: dgtester@yahoo.com (dg)
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>when you do tilt your head.
>Solution. Don't tilt your head
That's a bit like the old joke when the guy goes to the doctor and
says my ear hurts when I press just on the lobe here, and the doc
replies "well don't press there then". Of course it isn't the answer.
Moving one's head is a part of everyday living. I suppose they could
have said to me when I complained that progressives meant blur to blur
when looking right and left while crossing the road "well don't cross
roads then". I didn't choose that option and got a refund.
Ann
Rishi Giovanni Gatti - 27 Nov 2004 22:41 GMT
> Thank you in advance. I look forward to resourceful responses.
There are none...
The asnwer the idiot-doctor gave you when he discovered your
astigmatism, is just wrong.
You simply have one particular eyemuscle which strains too much and
puts the eye out of shape.
You should learn how to relax that muscle and cure the astigmatism
without glasses.
There is no other answer possible.
The glasses of your idiot-doctor are just injurious things you'd be
better to trash quickly never to be put on again.
You may have noticed that once your eyes "get accustomed", when you
leav off the glasses, vision is MUCH poorer than before.
You may also be able to notice that if you stay away from your glasses
for few days, preferably staying in the open light of the sun, you
will regain a measure of good eyesight without glasses.
Now these things are real and you can test them very easily if you
want.
How these pompous professionals here can avoid to discuss these simple
truths, is really insulting.