[13of40]

I wear soft contacts and one of my eyes has astigmatism. I've never understood how a symmetrical lens can correct an asymmetrical eyeball. Another strange thing I've seen is that after having put these things in my eyes about 2000 times at this point, I think I can tell that they vary in thickness, sometimes even in the same pack, but it doesn't seem to affect their performance. It all seems a little magical, so I guess I should find some time and go down the youtube rabbit hole that probably exists.

[kvgr]

Its not symetrical, one part is heavier and turns in the eye. What optometrist told me.

[mywittyname]

For mild astigmatism, you can use regular lenses and get pretty good results.

[JoeyJoJoJr]

I have tried contact lenses, but it seems they keep rotating around slightly and don’t match the angle of my astigmatism exactly, causing my vision to become blurry. I don’t know if it was a bad fit, but my optometrist told me it is because astigmatism correcting lens come in 15 degree increments, and the angle of my astigmatism falls right in the middle of these increments. I have never heard of anyone else having this issue and would have thought that surely it would be more widespread. Has anyone else had this issue, and have they corrected it?

[cm11]

Hybrid lenses have worked for me. Hard contact in the center with a soft "skirt" around the edge. Ideally, it's the vision of the hard lens and the comfort of the soft.

One brand: https://synergeyes.com/consumer/duette/duette-cl/

Or just hard lenses. My first were hard and in retrospect, they were less comfortable, but I had nothing to compare them to so I was more than happy with them. That was quite some time ago, but it was my understanding that hard lenses worked better with astigmatism.

A new doctor said I was on the edge between soft and hard and suggested I trial soft. It felt like wearing nothing. I did sorta notice they would blur on and off at times, but I opted for them and wore them for several years. Then he suggested the hybrid one for one eye and that's what I've been with.

[jasonkester]

I tried those too, and had the same issue. I’d find myself manually rotating them every few minutes, like focusing a pair of binoculars.

Wherever it was that they wanted to settle (assuming they were ever planning to settle) left everything out of focus.

Eventually I got tired of poking myself in the eye all the time and gave them back.

[Lewton]

This is the reason why I wear glasses now, it's not really fun to have your vision go blurry at random while biking

[_yb2s]

Astigmatism correction requires toric contacts- you should have a small line you have to orient upwards to align it properly, which myopia only contacts don’t have.

[BlueGh0st]

Toric lenses align themselves, the mark is for visual inspection by the doc while in the eye.

[mb5]

They do align themselves but, for me at least, it can take a little while. Aiming the mark downwards really speeds things up.

[foldr]

Hmm, I have astigmatism and have never had to worry about the alignment of my contact lenses in order to get good correction. Perhaps they are somehow engineered so that they automatically settle in the correct orientation.

Edit: Answer here, by the looks of it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41237519

[_yb2s]

It is much more likely that your astigmatism is very mild, and your optometrist decided not to correct it, and corrected only the myopia. This is common because toric contacts are more expensive, more difficult to put in, less breathable, and fall out easier.

As a longtime user of toric contacts, I have tried a dozen brands and every single one has the exact same mark. The shape will keep them from moving out of orientation, but it isn't enough to put them back into orientation if put in wrong, at least not quickly.

Care to share exactly what contacts you are using? Do you have astigmatism in one or both eyes? If it is toric and for astigmatism it will say so on the box- many people have it in only one eye, so the boxes will be different, and only one will say toric.

If you really are using toric contacts, but not aligning the mark, I am willing to bet you will be able to find the mark, align it properly, and your vision will be remarkably better.

Edit: One reason you absolutely need the mark is because the optometrist also needs to be able to tell if they are staying in orientation like they're supposed to, by visually checking the alignment mark. It needs to point straight upwards (vertical). If not, they can prescribe you one that is made pre-rotated to compensate.

[foldr]

No, my prescription is for astigmatism, and my contacts are contacts specifically for astigmatism. In my experience, they orient themselves (and indeed I have never had to worry about their orientation).

I have never previously thought about this in terms of rotation (as I was not even aware that the contact lenses were asymmetrical), but I do normally have to blink a few times after inserting the contact lens before I have sharp vision. But in my experience it takes a few seconds for this to happen and does not depend on inserting the lens at any particular orientation.

I have glasses too, so I would notice if the contact lenses were giving me significantly worse vision!

The brand is '1 Day Acuvue Moist for Astigmatism'.

[_yb2s]

It might be different for different people, but if I don't align mine, it takes more than a few blinks to align them. I think they will eventually but it could be a very long time (hours?)

[kevin_thibedeau]

The marks aren't the same across brands. Some have three dashes with two oriented horizontal and one up. Others have two equal dashes (My axis was 90° at the time). Others have two with unequal length.

[therein]

I have astigmatism and toric lenses never worked well for me. I could feel them rotate in my eye and they would never settle perfectly. This was back in 2006, though. And they weren't bad contacts either, they were ordered from Switzerland, allegedly custom made etc. I tried for a few weeks, they never worked well. Every ten blinks or so I'd get blurry vision.

[_yb2s]

You should try again, I've been wearing them since before that time, and they are much better now than they used to be.

[Scoundreller]

Probably just need a fitting with a different brand.

A lot of times your local distributor doesn't carry many of the astigmatic lenses because they can sit on the shelf for a while (it can 100x the available combinations) so they special order. I doubt they're specially manufactured per order for soft lenses.

[kevin_thibedeau]

Mass produced torics are available up to -8 power. I'd try them again to take advantage of modern design and fabrication improvements.

[13of40]

That's good to know - thanks! My astigmatism one is definitely special, because it takes an extra two or three weeks to get it from Costco, but I didn't know there was an orientation mark on it. I'll take a look.

[_yb2s]

I'm blown away that apparently lots of people on here are using toric contacts but their optometrist never instructed them on how to use them ??!!?!? That is horrible.

[cwmma]

not all of them work the same, only some of them need to be line up, others will line up on their own

[_yb2s]

I think they are pretty much all the same (I've tried almost every brand of them over the years), but will orient themselves... however at least for me it can take a long time, and vision is pretty bad while that is happening. I can't imagine skipping the extra few seconds required to have them perfectly aligned from the beginning.

[Arelius]

Interesting! I have always worn symmetric contacts when I (rarely) wear contacts, because I can’t get astigmatism contacts them to sit comfortably in my eyes and not pop out. I wonder if I were to align them first if they would be comfortable enough to wear. I’ll give it a try next time I’m at the optometrist.