What exactly is astigmatism? To understand astigmatism, you need to know a bit about the eye itself.
The eye is a round structure with a front surface, the cornea, that refracts light and points it back to the retina, a surface at the back of the eye. Your brain interprets the information it gets from the light sent to the cornea, and you can see.
You'll have noticed that light passing through different shapes create different visual effects. For example, the rounded lens of a magnifying glass enlarges what you see, as a window does not. If you put a straw into a glass of water, the straw you see through the glass or through the air doesn't exactly match the part of the straw you see through the water in the glass.
Just so, when light passes through the cornea of the eye, its shape affects the way the light refracts and hits the retina. When the shape of the eye is not quite round, it's called “astigmatism.” If you have astigmatism, the world may look blurry to you.
We don't know exactly what cause astigmatism. It's usually present from birth in people who have it, but it can also sometimes result from cataract surgery. Testing for astigmatism is simple: a special eye test called a “refraction test” will catch any refraction problems in the eye. In some case, retinoscopy, an eye test performed with reflected light, may be used instead of or in addition to the refraction test.
Astigmatism can be corrected with glasses or contact lenses. Surgery for astigmatism is possible; a surgeon will reshape the cornea to correct the asitgmatism. Mild cases of astigmatism may not require any treatment at all.
Online eye tests can catch astigmatism and let you know that you need to book an eye exam with an optometrist or ophthalmologist, but a complete eye exam is necessary to determine the best treatment for your particular eye health and vision correction needs.
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