Posts Tagged → astigmatism
Can Someone with Astigmatism and Presbyopia Wear Contact Lenses?
You went through the hard contact lenses in the 1970s trying to correct your astigmatism and you could not wear those things another day. They sat for years in your medicine cabinet, didn’t they?
Before I answer your question, I need to give you a few factoids.
Contact lenses have been around for more than 100 years. Yes, I said more than 100 years. Many changes have occurred with them since then. Perhaps after you failed with your hard contacts you were told you couldn’t wear contacts at all. Maybe you had to quit wearing your contacts when you got older and your eyes went through a change. Now you have your bifocal glasses and you feel like you are stuck with them.
Here’s another interesting fact. Among Americans who need vision correction there are around 20 percent wearing contacts. You have heard that they correct nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, but what if you now have all three? Don’t think your only choice is surgery or eye glasses. Times have changed and so have contact lenses.
Even a few years ago you might have been told that contact lenses for astigmatism, called “toric” contacts did not come in disposable, frequent replacement, multifocal or colored varieties. Those statements are no longer true. If you don’t have a very complex prescription, you can get all the things you need to see clearly.
The first correction is to your astigmatism. Fitting for them, whether you choose toric soft lenses or toric gas permeable lenses, will take longer for your eye care practitioner’s time and he needs to have even more expertise than just for fitting regular contacts.
The next major correction will be correcting both astigmatism and presbyopia. The kind of lens for this is the rigid GP lens even though there are some soft toric brands. Chances are they wouldn’t be what you need.
If you have astigmatism and are interested in wearing contact lenses, visit an eye care practitioner who is comfortable fitting toric lenses to see if they meet your needs and work best for you.
Dr. Ronald J. Martin of VisionHealth Optometry focuses on quality eye care services to family members of all ages. Services include eye exams, contact lens fittings, retinal photography, pre- and post-operative care, and glasses frames and lens selection. Dr. Martin’s office is located at 1440 Medical Center Dr. Suite2, Rohnert Park, CA 94928. He can be reached at 707-206-0290 or email him at questions@vision-health.com. Visit VisionHealth Optometry online at http://www.vision-health.com.
Dr. Martin is a member of the California Optometric Association, the American Optometric Association, the Redwood Empire Optometric Society, and the Optometry Alumni Association of the University of California.
Contact Lenses Today
Did you try contact lenses years ago and give up after being frustrated? You might want to reexamine your information.
Contact lenses today are of two types: soft lenses that are made from water-containing plastics and GP, “oxygen permeable” rigid contact lenses.
There are different kinds of wear cycles. Daily wear contacts have to be removed nightly, cleaned and stored properly. Extended wear lenses are safe for wear overnight. Some lenses are continuous wear and can be worn for up to 30 days.
Contacts can also be described by how often you throw the old pair away and replace them with new ones.
Daily disposables are discarded nightly, requiring no care, cleaning or case. Other replacement intervals of time include weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and quarterly. All of these are classified as disposable. Non-disposable lenses need to be replaced once a year but this kind usually are unusual or difficult-to manufacture prescriptions.
These days contacts come in various designs for different vision problems. Spherical ones correct nearsightedness or farsightedness and are indicated by a minus or a plus on your prescription. Bifocal contact lenses are like multi-focal eyeglasses in that they use different optical zones to correct the age-related, decreased ability to see both near and far, known as presbyopia. Do you have an astigmatism? There are contacts for it that correct either nearsightedness or farsightedness.
Tired of your eye color? Many lenses come in colors that enhance or even change your natural eye color along with making the corrections you need. There are even special effect lenses that are for fun or theatrical and film productions. Prosthetic lenses are colored ones that can cosmetically mask eye disfigurement. Many contact lenses come with an embedded UV inhibitor as well.
So what are the right lenses for you?
Your contacts need to do three things: properly fit your cornea, give you clear vision and provide any of the “extra” benefits you want, such as color, disposable or multiple powers.
There are more than tens of thousands of combinations of size, shape and power. For this reason they are a prescription item and must be fitted by a skilled professional. This will ensure a comfortable fit and great vision. Only an eye care practitioner can evaluate your eyes to tell which lens is right for you while taking into account your special needs, such as dry eyes, color requests or overnight wear.
Dr. Ronald J. Martin of VisionHealth Optometry focuses on quality eye care services to family members of all ages. Services include eye exams, contact lens fittings, retinal photography, pre- and post-operative care, and glasses frames and lens selection. Dr. Martin’s office is located at 1440 Medical Center Dr. Suite2, Rohnert Park, CA 94928. He can be reached at 707-206-0290 or email him at questions@vision-health.com. Visit VisionHealth Optometry online at http://www.vision-health.com.
Dr. Martin is a member of the California Optometric Association, the American Optometric Association, the Redwood Empire Optometric Society, and the Optometry Alumni Association of the University of California.
Eye Exams from Infant to Preschool Children
How can an eye doctor give an eye exam to an infant? Parents ask this all the time. The news is that 6-month old babies are able to see as well as adults when it comes to focusing, color vision and depth perception. There are tests that we do on infants to make sure that your baby’s eyes are developing the way they should.
Infant tests include:
- Tests of pupil responsiveness help us evaluate whether the pupils open and close properly in the presence and absence of light.
- The “fixate and follow” test tells whether your baby’s eyes are able to fix on and to follow an object like a light or a toy when it moves. Infants should be able to fix on an object shortly after birth and to follow the object from side to side and above and below by 3 months old.
- Another test is the “preferencial looking” test. During this test we show the baby cards that are blan on one side and have stripes on the other to attract the gaze of the infant. By doing this we can test the vision responses of your baby without using an adult’s eye chart.
Eye tests for preschoolers
Parents wonder how a preschooler who doesn’t know his letters can be given an eye test. What if she is so shy around strangers she won’t even talk? We have common eye tests made just for small children, including:
- LEA Symbols for preschoolers. These symbols are similar to the standard eye tests for adults, but instead of letters, special symbols are used like apples, houses, squares and circles.
- Retinoscopy is a test using light shined into the eye to see the reflection from the back of the eye, the retina. This test will help the doctor determine the eyeglasses prescription .
- Random Dot Stereopsis is a test using special dot patterns and 3-D glasses to see how well your child’s eyes work together.
What kind of eye problems can young children have?
Besides the common problems of nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, other vision problems for school children include:
- Lazy eye, also known as amblyopia: We want to rule out “lazy eye” because it can decrease vision in one or both eyes without detectable eye damage. It is most often treated with eyeglasses or contact lenses, but occasionally it requires that your child wear an eye patch to strengthen the weaker eye.
- Misalignment of the eyes, also called strabismus: This results in crossed or misaligned eyes, caused by different kinds of problems such as muscle control. It is often the cause of “lazy eye” and should be treated as soon in life as possible to that the child’s vision and eye teaming skills can develop like they should.
- Inability to maintain eye alignment when looking at near object: Being unable to do this will hinder a child’s ability to read.
- Focusing, depth perception and color vision: These can hinder the child’s abilities to differentiate distances and colors.
- Anterior eye and eyelid health: We will check to make sure your child doesn’t have abnormal or infected eye lashes, bumps or discharge from the eye. He will check the eye cornea, iris and lens for cloudiness and other irregularities.
If your infant or preschooler has these problems checked out and action taken as needed, he will be ready to perform well in school.
Dr. Ronald J. Martin of VisionHealth Optometry focuses on quality eye care services to family members of all ages. Services include eye exams, contact lens fittings, retinal photography, pre- and post-operative care, and glasses frames and lens selection. Dr. Martin’s office is located at 1440 Medical Center Dr. Suite2, Rohnert Park, CA 94928. He can be reached at 707-206-0290 or email him at questions@vision-health.com. Visit VisionHealth Optometry online at http://www.vision-health.com.
Dr. Martin is a member of the California Optometric Association, the American Optometric Association, the Redwood Empire Optometric Society, and the Optometry Alumni Association of the University of California.
