Can I Have an Astigmatism and Get LASIK?

You may have heard that LASIK is best for patients that have nearsightedness. But LASIK can also be quite effective for patients that are farsighted and even those with astigmatism.

Astigmatism can be harder to correct than nearsightedness or farsightedness but it’s possible. It’s highly likely that you can get LASIK even if you have astigmatism. Keep reading to learn more!

How LASIK Works

LASIK works because it involves permanently reshaping the cornea. This is with an excimer laser.

The cornea is the part of your eye that light refracts through. When it’s misshapen, light refracts differently.

This is what causes refractive errors like astigmatism. LASIK fixes the shape of your cornea to correct the error. The best part is that it’s a permanent correction!

Astigmatism and Eye Shape

Nearsightedness occurs when the eyeball is too short. Farsightedness happens when the eyeball is too long.

But with astigmatism, you aren’t dealing with the length of the eye. The problem, instead, is due to the shape of the eyeball being irregular.

The eye should ideally be shaped like a tennis ball. But with astigmatism, it’s shaped more like an egg. This means that the cornea comes to a rounded point.

LASIK can correct astigmatism by smoothing out this slight point. For most patients, astigmatism usually comes with other refractive errors.

LASIK has no problem correcting these refractive errors! When you wear glasses or contacts, your prescription dictates their shape.

During LASIK, your cornea is permanently reshaped. This allows light to refract through it properly, fixing all refractive errors.

Keep in mind that astigmatism is easier to fix if you also have farsightedness or nearsightedness. It’s also easier to fix if you have light to moderate astigmatism.

If you have more severe astigmatism, it may be difficult or impossible to correct. For patients with this severity, LASIK may not be the right procedure for vision correction. It depends on your exact prescription to know for sure.

Limits of LASIK

Although LASIK is amazing, it does have some limitations. The procedure can correct up to -12.00 diopters of nearsightedness, +6 diopters of farsightedness, and 6 diopters of astigmatism.

This means that as long as your full prescription falls within these limits, LASIK has a high probability of success. But when it comes to astigmatism, a prescription of more than 3 diopters may take a follow-up procedure to fully correct.

Your eye doctor can give you more details about what to expect from your surgery depending on your prescription. For most patients, the more severe your refractive error, the more it will take to correct.

Many, if not most individuals with astigmatism can and do have good outcomes after LASIK. LASIK patients, with or without astigmatism, have an over 90% chance of 20/20 or 20/40 vision after one procedure.

As long as you qualify for LASIK, chances are very good that it can fully correct your astigmatism. The only way to know for sure is to find out if you’re a good LASIK candidate.

Ready to start your LASIK journey? Schedule a LASIK consultation at Ellis Eye in San Francisco, CA!

When it comes to clear vision, wouldn’t you rather know right away if it could be yours?