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From: curl@wjvax.UUCP (Jim Curl)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Astigmatism
Message-ID: <635@wjvax.wjvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Dec-85 14:56:28 EST
Article-I.D.: wjvax.635
Posted: Tue Dec 24 14:56:28 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Dec-85 23:29:26 EST
Organization: Watkins Johnson Co., San Jose Ca. USA
Lines: 23

I while back I read a few postings about contact lenses and astigmatism.
Someone stated that there are two different types of astigmatism, corneal
and lenticular; the first pertaining to a non-spherical quality of the
cornea and the second referring to a similar feature of the lens.

The orignal poster said that it was impossible for a normal eye exam to
uncover which type one had since they both produced the same effects.
Having just gone in for a set of contact lenses, I questioned the
doctors where I went.  In fact, they have a means (which they apparently
used on me) to measure the curvature of the cornea directly and can then
deduce what type of astigmatism you have.  In my own case, they found that
I have both corneal *and* lenticular astigmatism.  And while corneal
astigmatism tends to fall on the 90 or 180 degree axes while lenticular
can be at any angle, my own case is oddball angles for both eyes and both
corneas and lenses; i.e., each of the four angles is somewhat different.

The result of all this?  I can't use hard lenses to correct my astigmatism
since a large component of the astigmatism is lenticular.  But since my
overall astigmatism is not that acute, I just bought a pair of non-astigmatic
contacts to correct my nearsightedness.

                                          j curl
                                          san jose, ca