have you heard the crazy word  astigmatism and wondering what it  

is and if you have it we'll  buckle up in this video i describe  

exactly what it is and what symptoms you may be  having if you have astigmatism let's focus in

hey howdy everybody i'm dr neal guymon dr eyeguy  with the show that focuses on keeping your eyes  

the healthiest and your vision the clearest  i do a lot of educational videos just like  

this one as well as how to and review videos  subscribe for my future eye guy videos and  

also check below for any additional links and my  eye guy recommendations otherwise let's focus on  

astigmatism now what is astigmatism when i tell  patients that they have astigmatism it sounds  

horrible it's the worst sounding  word that i usually can tell patients  

it sounds like an evil disease and it almost  makes you think that you have an instant death  

sentence but i'm here to tell you it's not an  evil disease and you won't go blind from it  

people usually think when they hear the  word astigmatism and it's separated out so  

uh stigmatism or stigma or maybe just the word  stigmatism but it's actually combined astigmatism  

now the meaning of the word comes from the greek  a meaning without and then stigma meaning spot  

without spot and that's exactly what astigmatism  does now your eye is designed to focus light to  

a single point on the back of your eye so you  can see things clearly even people that have  

nearsightedness or far-sightedness they're still  able to focus that light to a single point but  

maybe it's just not where that point should be  people that have astigmatism it does not focus it  

to a single point instead that point is stretched  out now it's estimated that 33 of the people in  

the world have astigmatism that's one in three  people are walking around with astigmatism in fact  

if you wear glasses or contacts right now you have  a 70 chance that you have astigmatism as well now  

astigmatism is all about the curvature of your eye  the common place where people have this curvature  

to it is the cornea the corny is that clear  portion of the eye that covers the color part of  

the eye the iris this is where a contact would sit  now a common analogy that many doctors use will  

say hey you have astigmatism so your eye is shaped  like a football people that don't have astigmatism  

their eyes shaped like a basketball usually  what they mean by that if you have a spherical  

prescription or no astigmatism at all that means  that your cornea has the same curve to it no  

matter which direction that you go so it's kind  of like a sphere like a basketball now if you have  

astigmatism they'll usually analogy that your eye  is shaped like a football meaning that you have  

one section of your cornea that has a curve to  it and then another section of your cornea has a  

steeper curve to it more of a curve than the other  one making it not uniform around now if you have a  

cornea that has different curves depending on what  direction that you're measuring that's what causes  

that point to be stretched and not focused on a  single point one portion of your eye is focusing  

for a certain point while the other portion of the  eye is focusing for a different point and that's  

what stretches that image out another common place  to have astigmatism is actually called lenticular  

astigmatism or you'll have this curvature inside  the lens the lens is right behind the iris the  

color part of the eye and you can have that same  type of astigmatism or different curves to this  

lens that can cause astigmatism now most people  that have astigmatism have regular astigmatism  

meaning that astigmatism follows certain  types of rules the curvature that we measure  

usually will be on a 90 degree degree axis from  each other so if you have a steeper curve in  

this area and a flatter curve there they usually  kind of follow that same rule depending on where  

your curve of your eye is now there's some people  that have irregular astigmatism meaning they don't  

follow the same rules those people that have  irregular stigmatism usually have a condition  

now one of these conditions that can cause  irregular astigmatism is called keratoconus  

keratoconus is kind of like having a beer belly  or a dad bod belly right on your cornea the cornea  

will have a normal curve but also in this little  bulge will show up causing irregular astigmatism  

or irregular curvature to it hey let me know down  in the comments if you thought i was going to say  

beer belly or dad bod belly in this video about  astigmatism now how do we correct for astigmatism  

luckily most people that have regular  astigmatism can be corrected with glasses  

contacts or even surgery like lasik or prk now  people that have these irregular astigmatisms  

there's also corrections there sometimes you can  correct the vision with glasses can be a little  

bit more difficult just because of that irregular  curve but there's contact lenses as well like i  

mentioned before specialty contacts called scleral  lenses can correct for that irregular cornea very  

well and give people actually very good vision  there's also hybrid lenses that have a hard lens  

in the middle with a soft lens skirt around it  to try and help with the comfort of hard lenses  

so there's definitely options out there for your  astigmatism depending on what type of astigmatism  

you have you'll want to go and check with your eye  doctor to see what kind of options are out there  

for you now for the part of the video to see if  you might have astigmatism now if you're wearing  

glasses right now one trick that you can do is  actually take the glasses off and hold them right  

out in front of you i want you to find something  with a straight edge maybe the door opening  

the side of the tv or a window i want you to look  at that straight edge and i want you to rotate  

your glasses from left to right if you notice  that straight edge is also rotating or distorting  

you likely have astigmatism correction in your  glasses here's a little example of an astigmatism  

lens when i kind of rotate it looking at me  do you see how i kind of distort a little bit  

i might look weird and my face gets thinner or  fatter and now here's a lens that does not have  

any astigmatism correction in it it's just for  nearsightedness and i'm rotating it you can see  

it doesn't distort my face or anything now if you  have contacts and you're wondering if you have  

astigmatism correction in your contacts usually  it will say it on the box it will either say  

toric lenses or it will actually say that you  have contacts for astigmatism another way you  

can tell is if you look at the side of the box  they'll have different sets of numbers and one  

that's labeled cyl that stands for cylinder if you  have that on your box of contacts then you have  

astigmatism correction in your contacts i'm just  going to run real quick through a prescription  

glasses prescription or contact lens prescription  so you can know if you have astigmatism correction  

in there as well if you have your printed out  prescription from your doctor let's take a look  

so here's an example of what a basic printout of  a prescription might look like i'll do a quick  

run through of what all these mean i'll have a  video coming out shortly about how to read your  

prescription exactly but over here on the left you  have od and os meaning right eye and left eye od  

is right eye os is left eye now this first section  here that's labeled sphere that usually indicates  

whether you're nearsighted or you're farsighted  now the next section is what i want you to pay  

attention to it's labeled cyl or cylinder that is  the amount of astigmatism that you have in your  

prescription now that third section the axis that  is in degrees so 180 degrees for the right eye  

90 degrees for the left eye and that is indicating  where the flat portion of your cornea is at and  

this axis number is important so they can orient  the glasses or the contacts to match the correct  

curvatures of your eye now if you do not have  astigmatism correction in your prescription  

in the cylinder section you'll either see  a zero or sometimes it'll be left blank  

sometimes you'll see the letters d s for  dioptric sphere either way if you're not seeing a  

number or a number in the axis section then likely  you do not have the astigmatism in your correction  

now let's say you don't know if you have  astigmatism you're wondering what kind of  

symptoms you might be experiencing if you have  astigmatism so let me show you some examples  

of what you might be experiencing if you have  astigmatism so this is with six diopters of  

astigmatism quite a bit here and you can  see definitely blurs the vision distorts it  

and then here's 90 degrees away and here is the  letter chart with six diopters of astigmatism  

definitely making things fuzzy not as crisp  we'll go 90 degrees away this makes you sick just  

looking at it here stretching the image it's not  a single point versus boom single point and clear  

here's an example of what it might look  like driving at night with astigmatism  

i use christmas lights as the example because  astigmatism really does stretch out those points  

of light instead of making one single point  it stretches out makes it blurry and distorted  

definitely causes a blur and usually can cause a  blur at all distances it can be far away it can be  

close up it can be on your computer it can be the  dashboard like i said because it doesn't focus a  

light to a single point that blur can come  from any distance that you're looking at people  

usually experience this blur or distortion more at  nighttime a lot of times when i have patients that  

come in the clinic and say hey i see well but  maybe at night time when i'm driving at night  

my vision is just not as clear that's usually  the first thought that comes into my head is  

they probably have astigmatism now this this  blur sometimes people say it almost looks like  

a stretched image or sometimes people use the word  double vision or a ghosting image that comes off  

letters or certain things that they're looking at  now close it can cause the blur and distortion but  

it makes it tricky for the eyes to focus on things  so people that read for a long amount of time or  

they're using the computer all day long sometimes  can cause eye strain and headaches because the  

eye just doesn't know where to focus because it  doesn't have a single point that it's looking at  

your eye will almost act like a camera or camera  lens trying to find that best focal point and so  

sometimes the vision will kind of go in and out  people have to blink to get it clear and they'll  

go clear but then like the vision will go out  again and then they'll have to bring it back so  

sometimes people will say that i just have this in  and out clarity of vision when i'm on the computer  

sometimes it's good and sometimes it'll blink  and that's bad and when it's constantly doing  

this it'll cause the eye to strain and cause their  eyes to hurt and sometimes they'll get a headache  

and so they'll come into the clinic saying hey i  get headaches and strain when i'm on the computer  

what can i do one possible reason is because they  have astigmatism that is uncorrected for and their  

eyes are just constantly trying to find the best  focal point and they strain out and get tired now  

if you're having any of these symptoms that i  just showed you definitely a good idea to make  

an appointment for an eye exam to see if you have  astigmatism because glasses or contacts definitely  

can help people with astigmatism remember to  comment below for any questions that you might  

have about astigmatism or anything else i am here  to help hey and remember to go check out my other  

videos i'll put a link right up here hey thanks  for watching again i'm dr neal guymon dr eyeguy  

committed to looking out for you and your eyes  stay focused and i'll see you in the next video