Astigmatism is one of the more frequent types of refractive errors or congenital malformations in your cornea or lens. Because of this, the light will unnaturally reach your retina, resulting in a distorted vision of the outside world.
If you have myopia, either your cornea or your lens will be shaped in a more elongated fashion, like a football, rather than in the shape of a circle. This will cause blurred vision. This may result in a general haziness of the vision. If your vision is not adequately corrected, you may have symptoms such as eye strain, pain, or headaches.
Corneal astigmatism often called a deformed cornea, is a common eye condition that can be effectively treated with specific contact lenses. On the other hand, corneal astigmatism can be helped by wearing a contact lens that reshapes the cornea to increase visual clarity. While lenticular astigmatism, also known as a malformed lens in your eye, is better served by glasses, corneal astigmatism can benefit from contact lenses.
Toric lenses are one variety of lenses that are capable of easing mild to moderate degrees of corneal astigmatism. These soft contact lenses differ from hard contact lenses in that they allow more gas to pass through. Hard contacts have been the go-to therapy for astigmatism to help realign the eye for many years, but soft contacts offer better long-term eye health and are, therefore, the treatment of choice today. To correct this issue, Toric contact lenses are sometimes a viable choice.
Disadvantages of Toric lenses
Toric soft contact lenses are a solution that is helpful for many people who have mild or moderate astigmatism. Some of the disadvantages of Toric IOLs are explained below.
Even if Toric lenses are weighted in some locations, they tend to shift out of alignment quite frequently, for instance. When someone wears contact lenses, every time they blink, the lenses move about in their eyes.
Standard soft contacts are intended to shift without affecting your vision. However, this does not work for people whose vision is affected by astigmatism. Your vision may be uncomfortable or hazy for a few moments, even though the sides of the frame have weights on them to return them to their original place. Because you have to blink often during the day, this can be too disruptive for you to do regularly.
Toric contact lenses can only correct a person’s vision if they have corneal astigmatism. The problem known as lenticular astigmatism may only be treated with corrective eyewear such as glasses. As the lens is located internally in the eye, behind the pupil, it is impossible to reshape it using a contact lens directly.
Toric contact lenses come at a premium price compared to ordinary soft contact lenses. If you buy these lenses from a different distributor, you could pay 35% of the retail price. If you have vision insurance, part of these costs may be covered; nonetheless, it is more likely that you will wind up paying more out of cash than you would for a pair of prescription glasses.
Many people who have astigmatism believe that toric contact lenses are not a good choice for them for the following reasons:
1. Regardless of the brand or the material, they are consistently lousy fits.
2. Because of the too individualistic fit, it can be challenging to identify the proper brand or size.
3. A significant amount of time will be spent sitting in the chair at your eye doctor’s office.
4. Additional cash out-of-pocket expenses.
5. Power restrictions that prevent the correction of astigmatism and other refractive defects.
6. Every year, a new lens fit check should be performed.
Traditional glasses vs. toric contacts
Simple soft or RGP lenses can negate your astigmatism with relative ease when you have low to moderate levels of the condition. When correcting excessive degrees of astigmatism, doctors typically recommend toric lenses.
Toric connections are intended to be aligned with the axis from six in the morning to midnight. When you first put contact lenses into your eyes, blinking causes the lenses to rotate and adapt, and the lenses’ weight causes them to position themselves in the correct alignment. This may, at times, be a source of annoyance for users. Standard spectacles, on the other hand, do not have this issue.
In most cases, consumers prefer hard lenses over soft ones. But recent design updates and technology breakthroughs have made significant strides toward bettering the wearer’s comfort and the quality of vision that can be achieved with soft lenses. Because of this, if you have astigmatism, you should give toric contact lenses a shot at least once.
The presence of a significant quantity of increasing astigmatism may be an indication of various underlying disorders such as keratoconus. These astigmatisms can be addressed with the utilization of specifically designed GPC contacts.
How can toric contact lenses fit?
In addition to other types of refractive defects, such as nearsightedness or farsightedness, some individuals have the condition known as astigmatism. People who need to correct one of their refractive errors may be candidates for soft contacts, which do not correct astigmatism. Toric lenses are an excellent choice for restoring corneal shape and other refractive defects if you have astigmatism and want to wear contact lenses but do not want to compromise your vision, you should consult an optometrist.
Toric contact lenses are designed to stay in place and increase your visual acuity by utilizing particular meridians. Your pupil serves as the starting point for measuring meridians, much like the radius of a circle. Your astigmatism can be corrected using these meridian points, which have special powers.
These soft lenses also have design features that aid their retention, such as slightly weighted or thicker edges. These features can be found on some models. These weights are typically located at the six o’clock and twelve o’clock positions on the axes.
Additionally, numerous toric contact lenses have multiple brands, each providing a unique fitting option. If you try one model and find that it does not fit properly in the eye, another brand may better meet your requirements.
