Can LASIK Fix Astigmatism?
Wearing glasses can be cumbersome, expensive, and an overall annoyance when you are dependent on them to simply see clearly. This has led many to seek a more permanent solution to correct their vision, with LASIK being the most appealing alternative to wearing glasses or contact lenses.
Your vision correction may be a bit more complicated, having also been diagnosed with astigmatism; a condition that causes you to your vision to be blurry or distorted regardless of how close or far they are. Thankfully, Lasik can fully correct astigmatism in addition to farsightedness or nearsightedness.
What Is Astigmatism?
While not a disease of the eye, but rather simply a refractive error caused by having an asymmetrical shape of the cornea; the translucent dome-shaped part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil and anterior chamber. The cornea is responsible for most of your eye’s focusing power by, but has a fixed focus and relies mostly on the lens of the eye to change how clearly you see objects that are close or far away.
Astigmatism commonly accompanies traditional myopia (nearsightedness) and hyperopia (farsightedness) that glasses or contact lens wearers are typically diagnosed with. Astigmatism is an added blurriness to your vision that is similar to the aforementioned eyesight conditions but is not due to the size or shape of the eye itself but rather an irregular shape of the cornea, creating multiple points of focus at the back of your eyes leading to objects not being in focus at all distances.
Understanding Vision
To better understanding how astigmatism affects our vision, we have to first understand how our eyes are affected by various changes to its shape and the passing of light through eye structures.
Light enters the eye through the pupil and works much like the shutter of an automatic camera to better allow us to adjust to brighter or darker conditions. In dark environments, our pupils open wider to allow more light to reach our retina, and conversely our pupil contract smaller in brighter environments to allow less light to reach the retina. In addition to this, light rays entering the eye also need to be bent into a precise point of focus on the retina found in the inner back of the eye, and if this doesn’t happen correctly, our vision is blurred.
The use of eyeglasses or contact lenses sharpens the focus by bending light and changes the way it enters the eye. The following are the most common eye conditions affecting vision.
Hyperopia: Occurs when the eyeball is too short or the cornea is too flat, causing light rays to reach a point of focus just beyond the retina. This causes you to see blurry images when up close and you are considered farsighted; only able to see images clearly when far away from you.
Myopia: Occurs when the eyeball is too long or when the cornea curves too sharply, causing light rays to achieve a point of focus before they even reach the retina. This causes you to see blurry images at a distance and you are considered nearsighted; only able to see images clearly when they are close to you.
How LASIK Corrects vision
LASIK (laser-assisted in-situ keratomileuses) is a type of laser refractive surgery that can precisely cut and change the shape of the cornea to better bend the light entering the eye and improving vision.
By altering the shape of the cornea you can effectively reduce the use or completely eliminate the need for glasses or contact lens.
There are several different types of LASIK surgeries, including Custom IntraLASIK, Wavefront-Guided Bladeless LASIK, and Bladeless LASIK. All LASIK procedures are performed with a specific type of laser, with how they are used and complementary procedures implemented being the main differentiator. If you are ready to stop wearing glasses or contact lenses, LASIK may be just what you are looking for. To schedule a personalized consultation in the Vancouver, WA or Salem, OR areas, look no further than Will Vision & Laser Centers, Call (877) 542-3937 today!