Astigmatism vs myopia: What you need to know
Share
In the UK, over 2 million people are living with sight loss. This can range from a mild impairment to complete blindness. Living with an eye condition can be hard, but there are some ways to make your life easier.
Astigmatisms and myopia are two very common eye conditions and are both considered refractive issues. Let’s take a look at what these conditions are and how you can help to improve the symptoms.
What is astigmatism?
Astigmatism is an eye condition that affects your vision. It makes your sight blurry both at a distance and close up. To see something perfectly, the cornea in your eye should be shaped like a football. Corneas with astigmatism are shaped more like a rugby ball with pointed ends. This is called corneal astigmatism.
Rugby ball corneas make your eyes focus on light at two different points in your retina, as opposed to the normal single point. This then causes the images you see to be distorted or blurry. People with mild cases of astigmatism may not notice any symptoms, but the most common ones are blurry vision, eye strain, needing to squint and headaches.
What is myopia?
Myopia is the medical name for near-sightedness. People with this condition are unable to see objects that are far away from them. Similar to astigmatism, it is caused by a different eye shape than normal.
Whilst astigmatism is a corneal issue, myopia is where the whole eye is too long or too curved. This leads to the light being distorted and images being unclear. Myopia can be a serious condition with extreme cases leading to blindness.
Myopia causes a lot of the same symptoms as astigmatism, including headaches and squinting. The key difference is that myopia sufferers will only have trouble seeing objects in the distance, whereas astigmatism causes blurriness up close as well as far away.
How you can improve your symptoms
Both astigmatism and myopia will need to be diagnosed by a professional eye doctor. As refractive errors may not have any symptoms, it is important that you go for eye tests regularly to increase the chances of abnormalities being picked up.
Treatment for both myopia and astigmatism will include wearing some form of corrective eyewear or having surgery. As astigmatism is a corneal issue, you do have the option of wearing toric lenses which are specially shaped to compensate for the misshapen cornea. Alternatively, you can get glasses with a similar shape. Surgery is an option too, but this is generally more expensive.
Prescription eyeglasses and contact lenses are also an option to help correct myopia. They work by helping to focus light right onto your retina. Laser surgery is also a popular choice, but this is not an option if your corneas are too thin to withstand the laser. If not, you may be able to have Phakic intraocular lens implant which is helpful for people with thin corneas.
