ASTIGMATISM

Astigmatism is a condition that essentially has to do with the shape of the front part of your eye, the cornea. Instead of the cornea of the eye being a perfect sphere like a soccer ball, it is shaped more like a football. This can cause your vision to be blurry at distance and near, and it can also cause you to see streaks around lights at nighttime. The cornea being shaped this way will focus light entering your eye to two different points instead of a single point. This requires your optometrist to give you 2 different powers in one eye in order to make the light focus into a single point again. Astigmatism is very common and over 56% of people have some degree of astigmatism. Astigmatism can easily be corrected with glasses, contact lenses, or surgical procedures. On your eye glasses prescription, you know you have astigmatism if you have a second number in your prescription listed as ‘cyl’.