Yes laser eye surgery can fix astigmatism and it is extremely effective at doing so. Lasik and Lasek are types of laser eye surgery and both can correct astigmatism equally well. There is a lot of confusion as to what astigmatism is, with many people thinking it is some sort of disease. This however is not the case, as astigmatism is just a type of prescription and is in no way different to being either long sighted (hypermetropia) or short sighted (myopia). You can have astigmatism by itself or you can have it combined with either long or short sightedness. You can tell if you have astigmatism by looking at the prescription card you get from your optician. The following is a typical prescription card:
Sph cyl axis
-1.50 -2.50 90
The sph (sphere) represents if you are long or short sighted. If it is a minus number you are short sighted and if it is a plus number you are long sighted. The Cyl (cylinder) represents the amount of Astigmatism you have. The axis is the direction of the astigmatism which does not affect whether or not you can have laser eye surgery. In the above example this person is short sighted and has astigmatism. The following lists the key things you need to know about laser eye surgery and astigmatism:
- Both Lasik and Lasik can successfully correct astigmatism and do so equally well.
- Both Lasik and Lasik can treat up to 6 dioptres (this is what prescriptions are measured in) of astigmatism but if your astigmatism is over +/-3.00 Dioptres then your surgeon is likely to advise that you must have wavefront laser eye surgery. Wavefront makes for a more accurate correction of your astigmatism but it is more expensive.
- The recovery period following your laser eye surgery is the same whether you have astigmatism or not.
- The cost of treating your astigmatism is exactly the same as it is if you were just long or short sighted. It is only more expensive if you have to have wavefront treatment.
In summary laser eye surgery can easily treat astigmatism and the chances are that following surgery you will achieve 20:20 vision. The best way to check if you are suitable is to book in for laser eye surgery consultation
If you interested in finding out more about laser eye surgery and astigmatism you can visit www.treatmentsaver.com
Hope this blog post has been helpful and thanks for reading,
Tim