Should I Use Daily Contacts for Astigmatism?

The eyes are said to be the windows of a man’s soul. Our eyes carry a lot of purposes and functions for our body. Without our eyes, seeing or visualizing the different things around us is not possible. Aside from giving us the sense of sight, our eyes can also be useful for aesthetic reasons. Sometimes, the beauty of a particular face is greatly affected by the eyes. Aside from this, the eyes are also capable of conveying a specific emotion such as anger, happiness, frustration, fear and sadness. However, just like any other parts of our body, the eyes can also experience problems and irregularities. One of the most common eye problems is the blurring of vision and astigmatism. Fortunately, there are already a number of ways in order to correct or treat this kind of eye condition. Some of these include the wearing of correctional glasses and/or contact lenses. However, some eye experts believe that contact lenses are not compatible with astigmatism. Nevertheless, should I use daily contacts for astigmatism?

Understanding Astigmatism
What is astigmatism? Astigmatism is defined as a type of eye defect that affects primarily the lens that is caused by a deviation from the spherical curvature that results to the distortion of different images. This is a result from the prevention of light rays from meeting at a common focus. These days, more and more people are beginning to suffer from this kind of eye abnormality. This, however, can be corrected by using specially designed eye glasses that are suitable for this kind of condition. However, when contact lenses were first introduced, astigmatism is found out to be incompatible with the benefits of the contacts. Fortunately, as time pass by, manufacturers of contact lenses are able to create special lenses that can be used for people with astigmatism. These lenses are otherwise known as soft lenses. Although this type of lens is not able to provide the same clearness or clarity as to what the hard contacts or glasses can provide, it can still allow clear images to be visualized by the user. With the use of these soft lenses, it is definitely safe to use daily contacts for astigmatism.

If it is desired to wear contact lenses for astigmatism, it is important to get trial lenses in order to see or diagnose the severity of the problem in our vision. In getting one of these soft lenses, a prescription from an optician is required. One of the best examples of soft contacts is called the “toric” contacts. Toric contact lenses are actually made from similar materials to the regular or spherical contact lenses. This would mean that the lenses can either be soft or RPG. However, the difference between the two actually falls on the design. The toric lenses have two powers in them that are created with curvatures at different angles. One of these is for correcting astigmatism while the other for either hyperopia or myopia. Aside from these advantages, the toric contact lenses are also designed to become relatively stable on the eye when blinking or looking around. Aside from this, the toric contact lenses are not capable of rotating on the eye in order to provide crisp and clearer vision.

However, fitting contact lenses for astigmatism, whether they are toric soft lenses or toric gas permeable requires more time and expertise compared to fitting the spherical contacts. Because of this, the toric contact lens fitting is typically more expensive than the fitting of a regular contact lens. In case the condition only suffers from mild astigmatism, which is less than 1.00 diopter, a regular spherical GP lens or a spherical soft lens can be worn. These spherical GP contact lenses are able to correct mild amounts of astigmatism since they are made from firm plastic and do not match to the asymmetrical shape of the front surface of the eye that has astigmatism. Instead of this, the GP lenses can optically replace the astigmastic curves of the cornea with the spherical front as well as the back surfaces of the lens for a clearer and sharper vision.

On the other hand, the spherical gas permeable lenses are capable of correcting astigmatism that is greater than 1.00 diopter (D). However, this particular spherical design is more uncomfortable to use on the eyes with high astigmatism. With the toric GP lenses, the asymmetric posterior surface provides more comfort with higher corneal astigmatism. This is due to the fact that the back surface of the lens can conform more similarly to the shape of the astigmatic eye.

Nevertheless, the satisfaction with this kind of approach in wearing contact lenses for astigmatism still depends on the expectations and the testimonials of each user or wearer. Some users are willing to sacrifice a little of the clarity in vision just to maintain the comfort as well as the economy in wearing the spherical soft lens. The use of the special aspheric soft lenses that are designed in order to reduce the spherical aberration of the eye is another possible option for cases with mild astigmatism. This type of soft lenses can help people with astigmatism see better without the need of using the toric lens.

Conclusion in the Use of Contacts for Astigmatism
Just like what is stated above, the gas permeable contact lenses can retain the shape on the cornea a lot better than the soft lenses do. This particular lens is also capable of providing sharper images compared to the soft toric lenses. Although these specific differences in the visual clarity between the two lenses are not easily noticed, some people can still appreciate the slight enhancement in the clarity of vision. Nonetheless, more people still prefer the use of soft toric lenses instead of the GP lenses due to the immediate comfort they can provide. These are some of the things that we need to know with regards to the use of contact lenses for eyes that suffer from the condition astigmatism.

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