Health & Fitness

Astigmatism (irregular shape of the cornea), suffered by millions of people in the US, is usually diagnosed by eye doctors through one of four commonly used methods. The standard vision test is one of the most frequently used tools to determine the condition of an individuals eyes. If you are like me, you have taken countless vision tests over the years, everywhere from school to the local drivers license office.

Refraction is the process in which an eye doctor uses a machine to change the lenses people see through until they can see the eye chart clearly. In keratometry, a machine measures the curvature of your cornea according to its relative steepness or flatness as compared to 20/20 vision. With corneal topography, a different machine measures the cornea with thousands of tiny measurements to build a color map of the cornea.

Treatments for Astigmatism
Eyeglasses have been the choice for many people who are looking for ways to correct vision problems relating to astigmatism. Eyeglasses tend to treat/correct the results of this visual problem and not the true cause of the problem. Contact lenses added to the eye are a correction of the vision as well and not an actual treatment.

Laser surgery for vision correction actually makes changes to the overall shape of the cornea of the eye, effectively eliminating astigmatism. Some people have found eye exercises help in combating this eye deformity as well. The exercises strengthen the muscles around the eye and eventually cause the eye to adjust back to a more normal shape.