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Medical Forum / General / Vision / March 2009

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Astigmatism

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Chuck - 20 Mar 2009 02:59 GMT
I've read a number of articles online about astigmatism, and they all
say that you are either born with it, get from injury, or get it from
eye surgery.  I had 20/20 vision when I was 21 and now (40) have 1.5 d
of astigmatism.  Is this unusual?  I'm wondering if astigmatism that is
simply genetic is more often present from birth as opposed to
developing later in life. Mine gradually increased from nothing to
where it is over the course of 10 years or so.  Should I be looking for
some sort of "cause"?

One reason this might be important is if I ever want to get LASIK.  I
wouldn't want to modify my eye only to have some underlying cause of
astigmatism go away.

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Mark A - 20 Mar 2009 07:18 GMT
> I've read a number of articles online about astigmatism, and they all
> say that you are either born with it, get from injury, or get it from
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> wouldn't want to modify my eye only to have some underlying cause of
> astigmatism go away.

Could you post your exact Rx so we can see exactly what you are talking
about? It should look something like this

+1.00 -1.50 x78 (if you need progressives, then it would also specify an add
power like +1.75)

You will have one for each eye (OD and OS). The first number (sphere) could
be positive or negative.

BTW, if you have an astigmatism (need to see your Rx) then you may have had
it your entire life, but since your sphere correction would have been Plano
(no correction needed) then the OD probably did not feel you need glasses
just for your astigmatism (based on your eye exams). Almost everyone has at
least some amount of astigmatism since the eye is rarely perfectly shaped.
Chuck - 20 Mar 2009 23:32 GMT
I wore no glasses and had perfect vision until my twenties.  I didn't
wear glasses full time until I was 30.  My Rx is 0 -1.5x180 & +0.25
-1.0x180.  This has grown over time.

> > I've read a number of articles online about astigmatism, and they
> > all say that you are either born with it, get from injury, or get
[quoted text clipped - 24 lines]
> exams). Almost everyone has at least some amount of astigmatism since
> the eye is rarely perfectly shaped.

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Mark A - 21 Mar 2009 05:09 GMT
>I wore no glasses and had perfect vision until my twenties.  I didn't
> wear glasses full time until I was 30.  My Rx is 0 -1.5x180 & +0.25
> -1.0x180.  This has grown over time.

It is possible (although somewhat unlikely) that you had absolutely no
astigmatism when younger and developed it later in your life, but just
because you need glasses when you get older does not mean that the shape of
your eyes has changed. When you are younger your eye muscles are better able
to bend the lens in your eye to correct for these problems and focus
correctly. As you get older, the lens in your eye gets stiffer, and your eye
muscles may get weaker may it harder to compensate for these irregularities
in the shape of your eye.

As you get older, you are also likely to need to reading glasses (for same
reasons as stated above about getting older), or progressives if you want to
see clearly at far and near distances at the same time. With your vision,
you could probably get by with just reading glasses unless the astigmatism
correction at a distance is important to you.

Also, a cylinder correction of -1.50 is not equivalent in power to a sphere
correction of 1.50. The actual effect is about half, but the details of this
are beyond my technical expertise. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.
But discuss it with your OD if you are concerned.
 
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