| People with astigmatism will have blurred vision at all distances as a result of the front surface of their eye (the cornea) or the lens inside the eye being irregularly shaped – this is nothing to worry about as it can easily be corrected with glasses or special toric contact lenses. Essentially, instead of being shaped like the side of a football, with the same radius in all directions, the cornea is shaped like the side of a rugby ball, where the radius of curvature varies according to the orientation – the steepest curve will be at right angles to the shallowest. Astigmatism is corrected using the cylinder part of your prescription, and the orientation of the cylinder is positioned according to the axis. Astigmatism is usually found in combination with either long-sightedness or short-sightedness and the majority of people are astigmatic to some degree. |
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