Astigmatism

There are two major components to an eye exam. The first is a complete health assessment of the eyes; the second is measuring how the eyes focus and prescribing ...

Presbyopia Presbyopia is where individuals in their early 40s lose the ability to focus things at near. Mile Brujic, OD, FAAO is a 2002 graduate of the New England College of Optometry. If you have astigmatism correction in a pair of glasses for the first time or you have an increase in the amount of astigmatism, your glasses may feel awkward when you first put them on. Irregular astigmatism happens with certain conditions where the astigmatism is not located 90° apart. The vision will often times seem clear but they may feel like things are magnified or minified, it may feel like the floor is tipping away or towards you, it may feel like doorways are tilted, or you may feel like you are reaching for things that are not exactly where you would expect them to be. It’s important to not simply sit stagnant and watch TV or look at a computer screen with your new prescription but make sure that you get out and do active tasks with glasses on. The second part of measuring how the eyes focus is when you’re looking through the phoropter. Although the lines in the figure represent different powers in the lens, there are no visible lines in lens. People with astigmatism actually have a different prescription going up and down in their glasses than they do going left and right. The higher someone’s hyperopic prescription is, the worse someone’s near vision is. Next, an autorefractor is used to measure how the eye focuses light. The higher someone’s myopic prescription is, the worse someone’s distance vision is.