subject: What Is Astigmatism? [print this page] Many people with myopia (nearsightedness) and hyperopia (farsightedness) have some degree of astigmatism. Usually it is caused by an irregularly shaped cornea (called corneal astigmatism) shaped more like a football than a basketball. As a result, you experience distortion or tilting of images due to the unequal bending of light rays entering the eyes.
But sometimes lenticular astigamatism results from an irregularly shaped lens, which is located behind the cornea. Either kind of astigmatism can usually be corrected with eyeglasses, contact lenses or refractive surgery, says Dr. Tom Tooma, Medical Director of TLC Laser Eye Centers in Southern California, who has performed more than 100,000 LASIK procedures.
You may not notice small amounts of astigmatism at all or have just slightly blurred vision. But sometimes uncorrected astigmatism can give you headaches or eye strain and distort or blur your vision at all distances. Because not only adults can be astigmatic, you need to make sure you schedule an eye exam for your child.
Dr. Karla Zadnik, an optometrist at The Ohio State University School of Optometry, found in a recent study of 2,523 children that more than 28 percent of them had astigmatism. Children may be even more unaware of the condition than adults, and they are unlikely to complain about blurred or distorted vision.
But astigmatism can affect a child's ability to see well in school and during sports, which is why it's important that eye exams be scheduled at regular intervals to detect any astigmatism early on.
