Tips for choosing glasses for astigmatism

How long does it take to get used to new glasses? This is one of the most common questions that ophthalmologists hear from patients and which does not lose its relevance. Why does a person have to adapt even to optics that are no different from the previous one? There are several reasons for this. Let's take a closer look at them.

You will have to get used to any glasses. At the same time, not only to the lenses, but also to the frame. Therefore, even when replacing optical products with a model with exactly the same parameters, it will take some time to adapt to it. Some people feel comfortable in the new optics within a few minutes. For others, getting used to new glasses takes weeks. Particularly problematic in this context are ophthalmic products for the correction of astigmatism and presbyopia.

Why do they interfere?

Problems that arise after purchasing a new pair are conventionally divided into 2 groups: physical and ophthalmological. The first category is represented by:

• pressure on the bridge of the nose;
• a feeling of compression arising from the arms;
• skin irritation.

The first and second moments eliminate themselves after a few days of constant wearing due to the emergence of habit and adaptation of the frame to the anatomical features of the face and skull. To eliminate the third one, you will have to change your glasses . The material from which they are made caused an allergic reaction. By the way, it can develop over time. Therefore, if you often have pimples on the wings of your nose or where the bridges meet, or there are signs of other irritation, then you need to rush to the optician.

Important! If something like bedsores form on the wings of the nose, then it is worth changing the frame to a more compact one, and the glass, oddly enough, it will sound, to non-glass. Products made from a special polymer material will suit you.

Ophthalmological problems are not associated with a lack of physical habit . This category of unpleasant manifestations includes changes in the perception of the surrounding reality and failures to focus. Examples of such difficulties:

• a change in the distance to the floor, steps or other surface on which a person is located, and the accompanying problems with understanding one’s position in space and with what efforts need to be made to change this position (example: not being able to correctly determine how much one should raise one’s leg, a man trips on a step);
• making objects smaller or larger (example: some people have to take off their glasses when sewing);
• changing the distance to the surrounding environment (example: a tripping person tries to grab an object, but it turns out that it is located a little further than it seems).

Some of these phenomena can be attributed to the consequences of getting used to a particular frame and to certain lenses. A similar development of events cannot be avoided when switching from spherical lenses to aspherical ones , when vision drops by more than 0.75 D (accordingly, new glasses will differ from the previous ones by 0.75 D) and when the cylinder axis changes by more than 10 degrees.

Other unpleasant manifestations indicate incorrectly chosen glasses. For example, for correct selection it is not enough to know visual acuity and the distance between the eyes. The recipe also contains other parameters that are determined during diagnostics.

Checking is also necessary to exclude the presence of ophthalmological diseases that require special lenses . Therefore, if you purchased glasses without a prescription or using an old form, no one can guarantee that unpleasant phenomena such as nausea, dizziness and severe changes in the picture will disappear or at least become less pronounced. If the possibility of an incorrect selection is excluded, then all that remains is to be patient and make efforts to develop the habit as quickly as possible.

Do children need to wear glasses?

There is an opinion that glasses from an early age will certainly cause the child’s eyes to lose the ability to adapt. Many parents are confident that if the child’s vision does not deviate greatly from the norm, it is better to do without glasses at all. As the child grows up, his eyes will adjust themselves and his vision will improve. This is an extremely wrong approach.

Childhood is a period when the body is constantly developing, but it is precisely this age that is characterized by very common ailments that children suffer from, namely astigmatism, myopia and farsightedness.

Treatment consists of glasses that must be worn constantly. In this case, in order to achieve the desired effect, so that children’s vision is excellent in the future, it is very important to choose the right glasses correction.

1. Farsightedness. If a child has this disease, then glasses must be worn constantly. And this is very important, since at this age, with uncorrected farsightedness, which exceeds the existing norm, can contribute to amblyopia, that is, the so-called “lazy eye” syndrome, as well as convergent strabismus.
2. Myopia. If this disease exists, children need glasses with which they can see everything in the distance, but some will also need glasses so that they can see up close (if myopia exceeds five to six diopters). However, glasses cannot guarantee full vision correction to the highest level. This is usually associated with various changes in the membranes of the myopic eye.
3. Astigmatism. With this disease, children are prescribed glasses with cylindrical lenses, and at the same time a certain wearing regimen. In the case of an existing illness, glasses are usually prescribed to be worn constantly or to perform certain exercises at a short distance.

Are there ways to get used to it?

Unpleasant sensations can be minimized. To do this, follow the following rules and recommendations:

1. 
   on the first day, limit the time of use;

2. with each subsequent day, increase the wearing time;
3. when using it for the first time, let your eyes get used to the new sensations, just sit motionless in them for a few minutes;
4. then complete the tasks that the glasses are designed to help solve (if you are nearsighted, try to look at objects on the street; if you are farsighted, read the text);
5. take off your glasses before going up the stairs, but don't hesitate to use the railings;
6. if difficulties are associated with the amount of light penetrating through the glass, buy lenses with tinted or reflective coating;
7. Do your daily activities while wearing glasses (do this even if your daily tasks start to take more time).

How long does it take to get used to glasses?

I have to disappoint you, but there is no answer to this question. Even if all the details are followed, it is impossible to say with complete confidence that you will not encounter unpleasant sensations with new glasses. In general, getting used to glasses can last from a few minutes to 1 month (the older a person is, the more difficult it is for him to get used to new things; glasses are no exception). Headache, dizziness, nausea, tension in the eyes and head, distortion of the shape and size of objects can last an average of 2 weeks. It takes a little more time to get used to glasses for astigmatism or progressive glasses compared to regular glasses.

Of course, a person can get used to a lot of things, but how hard and how long it will take him to get used to glasses depends on his individual characteristics. Listen to yourself. Remember how susceptible you are to changes in life.

If you are conservative, and the thought of change makes you feel uneasy, then remain yourself when replacing glasses - do not strive for drastic changes, make them consistently.

If changes do not frighten you, but delight you. If you are used to taking risks and experimenting, then you can afford more.

How long will it last?

The process is purely individual. It is impossible to give an exact answer, since the state of health, the correct fit of the frame and the type of lenses used are unknown . Moreover, the second parameter - the location of the center of the lens strictly in front of the pupil - is not always checked even in optics.

Important! Specifics in this matter are excluded, but there is an approximate, rather wide range. It varies from several days to 2 weeks.

Diagnosis of astigmatism

There are non-hardware methods for determining the disease using tests that quite effectively determine both the presence and the degree of development of the disease. And it must be borne in mind that with accompanying visual defects, be it myopia or farsightedness, glasses are not prescribed if the impairment is less than one diopter. There is simply no point due to the ineffectiveness of such glasses; a small amount of correction will be invisible to the wearer of corrective lenses. In such cases, it makes sense to correct the “basic”, the main eye disease – myopia or farsightedness, which has a different cause, elongation or flattening along the “pupil-retina” axis of the eyeball.

A way out of the situation may be to purchase glasses only with “cylinders” along the axes, and correction of myopia or farsightedness is done using contact lenses, which are placed directly on the surface of the cornea in the traditional way. Although there are special contact lenses for astigmatism. But about them a little later, in the section “Contact lenses for astigmatism”

Tests to detect astigmatism are simple and effective. This:

Diverging Beam Test

To pass it, you need to cover your hand first with one eye, then with the other. If each eye sees the test differently (doubling the number of some rays in a horizontal, vertical or oblique position, blurring or clouding of some lines, changing the color or tone of some of them) - then you have astigmatism. The convenience of this test is that at the outer end of each beam there is its expression in degrees of inclination, which already makes it possible to determine the primary shape of future glasses lenses.

Parallel Lines Test

It must be carried out in bright daylight. The picture will show squares with black lines parallel to each other with white spaces between them. The width of the black and white stripes is the same. There are 4 squares: with horizontal, vertical and located at an angle of 45⁰ with a slope from the top right in them and from the left from top to bottom. If there is no astigmatism, all lines will be black, clear and with equal intervals between them.

Test "Simmens Star"

Recognized as the most accurate and effective test. It consists of lines equal in all respects, diverging from the center, in the manner of an image of a luminous star. In people with normal vision, the black and white lines become thinner and give the feeling of a uniform gray background, and the lines closer to the center simply merge and turn into a gray circle. In a person with astigmatism, the circle will turn into an oval, and its central part will acquire some color tint due to interference in the alternation of thin stripes-rays and blurred lines.

Self-diagnosis for astigmatism

Signs such as:

• Blurry vision. And the blurriness is not similar to the same signs of myopia: the contours of objects do not become foggy at the edges, but flake off, the image seems to be duplicated, and pale similar contours appear at the edges.
• Visual acuity decreases both near and far; ordinary glasses improve the situation, but are not able to completely get rid of the problems.
• The eyes quickly get tired, pain and tingling appear in them, there is also such a thing as dry eyes when working at the computer for a long time or when reading.
• Noticeable deterioration of vision at dusk, decreased accommodation of the eyes in the evening and at night.
• My head hurts and I feel dizzy.
• General performance decreases with eye fatigue.

How to “defeat” astigmatic glasses?

To shorten the adjustment process, you should consider ordering frames made to suit your needs . This behavior is rational if at least 1 item below corresponds to what is indicated in the glasses prescription:

• the spherical component is equal to or greater than ±4.0 D;
• the eyes have different visual acuity or the size of the cylindrical component;
• astigmatic lenses are prescribed for the first time;
• the cylindrical component is equal to or greater than 1.0 D.

If it is not possible to order a unique frame, then when choosing a ready-made frame, rely on the following recommendations:

• 
  go to the optician in the morning;

• do not order glasses if you are undergoing therapy with potent drugs or are pregnant;
• take with you your old prescription and old glasses (lenses);
• try not to choose frames that are radically different in size and clearance from the version you wore before;
• opt for high refractive index lenses.

In general, you need to be prepared for the fact that the process of addiction will drag on . This cannot be avoided; this is a feature of astigmatic glasses. Moreover, in their case the principle applies: the higher the degree of astigmatism, the more difficult it is to adapt. The average time it takes to form a habit varies from a few minutes to a month.

Important! For older patients, the process is delayed even more, so they need a gradual transition to a new type of glass: first they take a product with smaller diopters, and then gradually come to the required value.

How to quickly get used to new optics?

Follow the wearing regime. Wear reading glasses only when reading. Put less strain on your vision until your brain and eyes adapt to the new optics. It is more difficult to get used to wearing glasses all the time; we recommend taking them off more often and giving your vision organs a rest. After a few weeks, the symptoms will disappear.

We recommend following simple tips:

• When walking up stairs, remove your optics, this way you will eliminate pronounced distortion of outlines and shapes.
• Astigmatic lenses should have thin frames to relieve eye strain.
• If you experience dizziness from wearing glasses, it is not recommended to wear them for a long time. Do eye exercises more often.

If addiction is problematic and discomfort increases, then consult an ophthalmologist. He will conduct an examination and give further recommendations.

What not to do?

• do not bend the frame trying to adapt it to your face;
• do not buy glasses according to the old prescription and finished products that do not take into account any of your indicators except for visual acuity (these are usually sold in markets and in dubious shops);
• after the first failures, refuse a new pair for a long time (the first week you need to resort to glasses as often as possible, otherwise the habit will simply have nowhere to come from);
• ignore the increasing severe pain and dizziness.

If the symptoms not only do not disappear over time, but also intensify, then this is a reason to contact a specialist . Perhaps an error was made during the selection or manufacture of glasses.

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Maybe contact lenses are better?

In contrast to the idea of ​​​​giving up children's glasses, there is another extreme. Namely, some parents believe that contact lenses are a much better alternative for their child. He will not develop complexes, and vision correction using these ophthalmological devices is many times better.

This belief is also not considered true, since contact correction requires special conditions of use and, due to their age, it is simply not suitable for many children. Operating conditions, wearing rules and the psychological factor due to age can become a serious obstacle to contact correction.

• First of all, these lenses should be selected only by a doctor who has identified certain abnormalities in the child’s vision;
• Good lenses can only be purchased at a clinic that specializes in this;
• Storing and handling contact lenses is important, they need to be worn for a certain time and also changed at the right time;
• A child should not sleep with lenses on his eyes, because this can provoke the development of severe corneal disease;
• We should not forget that lenses are a foreign body to the eyes, and you should consult an ophthalmologist from time to time. If the child wears glasses, then this is also necessary.

If your child has vision problems, you should not wait and hope that they will resolve themselves. The sooner you seek help from an ophthalmologist, the greater the chance that your child will have excellent vision in the future.

Astigmatism and myopia

The most common phenomenon is a combination of myopia and astigmatism. To take into account both pathologies, you need to meet the minimum requirements for:

1. “Minus” diopters.
2. The thickness of the center of the lens (sometimes it is unacceptable from a physiological point of view, usually excessive at large diopter values).
3. Rotation axes.
4. The diameter of the lenses and the radius of their curvature, comfortable to wear.
5. Material. The best contact lenses are made from silicone hydrogel.
6. Design.

The method and time of wearing such lenses can be very different and depends on the materials used in their manufacture. That is, it can only be used during the day, when the lenses are removed at night and stored in a special container and in a special liquid (usually imitating the composition of natural tears with the addition of antiseptics that are harmless to the eye). But such devices can also be worn for a long time; they can be worn without taking them off for a week. Or permanent - these lenses are worn without removing for a month.

Soft contact lenses (SCL)

Indispensable for medicinal purposes in the absence of a lens operated after cataract. Or to protect the eye in the postoperative period. Or when it is necessary to periodically apply medications to the eyes. They are also convenient during sports. Disadvantage: they require regular cleaning and disinfection due to the frequent colonization of fungi and bacteria.

ACUVUE lenses

The most advanced for today. They can simultaneously correct farsightedness, nearsightedness and astigmatism with high deformation rates along the meridians and axes. The special fastening ensures a stable, without shifting, position on the cornea.

Prices

One-day TCL will require 350-400 rubles. per month. But the one-time amount that needs to be paid will be equal to approximately one and a half thousand rubles (30 blisters per package, 10 lenses in the blister itself). The price for a monthly set of six lenses is approximately the same.

And remember that the cost of sets of hard or soft contact lenses for astigmatism over several years will be equal to the cost of radical surgery to correct vision defects. But already - forever.