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If you currently wear glasses and know you suffer from astigmatism, your eye care professional may be able to fit you with contact lenses. Fitting contact lenses is quite subjective to patient comfort and vision, and fitting gets more complicated when astigmatism is involved. It may require more than one consultation to establish the best contact lens for you.

The cornea is located at the very front of the eye and is the area, which actually contacts with air. Beneath the cornea lies the pupil and the lens. Our corneas are normally spherical in shape like a golf ball. The X and Y Axis on a golf ball are of equal lengths. When light enters the correctly formed cornea, it is clearly defined and focused into to one point. For some people the cornea goes out of shape and one axis is longer than the other and therefore the axis are asymmetrical, like a rugby ball, or American football. This condition is known as astigmatism. When light enters the incorrectly formed cornea or cornea with astigmatism, the light is not focused directly to one point, and results in blurred vision. Toric contact lenses are designed to correct vision for people who suffer from astigmatism.

Your Eye

The word toric is derived for the geometrical torus shape. It’s basically like a donut.  Contact lenses are normally spherical around the cornea, but contact lenses for astigmatism must differ because of the asymmetric shape of the cornea. Simply put the donut fits around and somewhat corrects the astigmatism in your eye.

Most major manufacturers provide their version of contact lenses for astigmatism. Acuvue markets Acuvue Oasys For Astigmatism, and Acuvue Advance For Astigmatism. Ciba-Vision supplies Air Optix For Astigmatism. Bausch & Lomb manufactures Purevision Toric. Lenses for astigmatism may be hard or soft format contacts. Hard contacts tend to force the cornea into the most desirable geometry and so provide better vision, while soft contacts being less rigid tend to be more comfortable. Hard contacts usually require more attention through handling and maintenance while soft lenses are disposable and less expensive.

If you have eye astigmatism you will likely pay more for your toric contact lenses than for regular lenses. Toric lenses are not produced in the quantity of spheric lenses, and cost more to manufacture. They also cost more to develop. Eye care professionals may take more time to ensure the lens provides clear vision and fits comfortably.

If you suffer from astigmatism and would like to try out contact lenses, make an appointment with your eye care professional. You never know, contact lenses might be right for you!