Astigmatism is a disorder of the eye, which is caused by the cornea when curved unevenly. These refractive disorders can affect anyone regardless of social status, age and gender. In other words Astigmatism can inflict people of different age groups.
Astigmatism usually causes difficulty in seeing things clearly or become blurred, especially for objects that are small. Usually, astigmatism patients also suffer from myopia (nearsightedness). But in contrast to myopia, an abnormal curvature of the cornea is shorter, and the axis of the eyeball is longer.
In the normal eye, the shape of the eye ball is perfectly round, so the image is focused on a single entry point to both receptors. However, in patients with astigmatism, the shape of the eyeball is not round but rather oval. This causes the shadow that goes a bit blurry, and the spread is not focused on one receptor point. Sometimes, people afflicted with astigmatism would also find themselves seeing doubles when looking upon one single line. Astigmatism can be divided into a few different categories, namely:
• Astigmaticus miopicus compositus, where two points dropped in front of the retina
• Astigmaticus hipermetropicus compositus, where two point falls behind the retina
• Astigmaticus miopicus Simpex, wherein each of the two points dropped in front of the retina, and only just in the retina
• Astigmaticus hipermetropicus Simpex, where 2 points each fall behind the retina, and only just in the retina
• Astigmaticus mixtus, wherein each of the two points dropped in front of the retina and the back of the retina
Astigmatism is usually inherited. But it could also be caused by bad eye care habits such as reading or seeing much on one side, watching TV and reading while lying down. Astigmatism correction in the value of small, feels just blurry vision. But when left untreated astigmatism is not corrected, causes headaches or eyestrain, and blurred vision in all directions. In children, this condition is largely unknown, because they are unaware of the presence of such a problem and more often than not, do not know how to raise the problem to adults capable of taking action.
Most kinds of astigmatism can be corrected by wearing glasses to correct the vision blurred by astigmatism, or could be corrected by undergoing costly and risky eye operations. Some examples of these kinds of operations would be LASIK or PRK, both of which is similar as they reshape the tissues in the eye in an attempt to correct the vision on one’s eyes permanently. But there are risks when it comes to undergoing such procedures which includes a small possibility of losing your vision permanently.
Thus, some would opt to stick with using eyeglasses to correct the blurred vision due to astigmatism. Glasses, while vastly common today, could be seen as being ugly by some people, and could also be a trouble when wearing them.