There’s a BIG difference in how each optician / optometrist / ophthalmologists measures and determines and prescribes glasses for people with astigmatism.
I have astigmatism. It’s -0.5 at 80° in my right eye, -1.0 at 100° in my left eye. Meaning it’s 10 degrees off the vertical axis, different in each eye, symmetric to the face.
My “eye doctor” – my opthalmologist? — is a good doctor. Well educated, does a good job as a doctor. He gave me a straight -0.5 / -1.0 myopia prescription after measuring “some astigmatism”, said “this is fine”.
Then I went to a not-a-doctor guy. A licensed optician? Optometrist? Skilled and well-educated. He took the time to measure the precise degree of astigmatism and was careful to prescribe a close and practical match to the measured astigmatism. I had no idea he would do that, and no expectations of any difference whatsoever. And: Those glasses are MUCH better. I see better, see clearer, can work forever, don’t get tired in the eyes or head. Feel sharper.
I’m kind of reluctant to add this last part as it probably seems implausible, but my experience with this more detailed prescription for astigmatism is that it has allowed my depth perception to improve. Slowly. I thought I was imagining it, but it does make sense according to the optometrist and scientific papers. Basically if you get a better signal to the brain, you get better processing, better learning, better adaptation. And less tired.
I never get good prescriptions. I'm too nervous. All I can think about is that I am wasting their time, by the third time they ask "this one? ... or this one? ... Before? After? Before? After?" I clam up. I'll just say one cause I feel so incompetent that I can't even tell this busy, smart person which picture on a wall looks better.
If you were like me, then it was just that slower speed, that connection, that ability to stop and consider, is what would get me the prescription I want.
I had the same experience so many times and I was so frustrated that I decided to buy a lens kit and learn to take the measurements myself, it's not rocket science.
And let me tell you, its the BEST $200 I ever spent.
I have high astigmatism -4.00 and it feels so good being able to get my prescriptions very precisely and having a good vision again.
I have thought about doing that, but thought it would be much more expensive. Where did you buy it?
I have been to multiple optometrists, but it always goes like, the eye measuring machine says my glasses should be one diopter stronger, but my eye sight was still good enough that I do not need a new prescription..
I looked into it and found some for $200. But they had testing glasses (where you insert the lens) with a fixed eye distance (PD). If that is the wrong PD, it is bad
And half the lenses there are plus lenses. I only need minus lenses.
But it seems one can buy testing glasses and individual lenses rather than a set.
Coincidentally, this topic just came up for me. I've been experiencing bad eyestrain at work and have had to wear reading glasses on top of my contacts to get through my day.
After two years with two different doctors, I went to a new optometrist this weekend. A technician performed the exam and an eye doctor went through everything over Zoom at the end.
Result? Perfect 20/20 vision and I no longer need reading glasses to see my screen. There really is a big difference between providers.
What was the difference in the measuring method? Because when I go to doctors, they usually first measure my eyesight with a machine, which should give an objective measure of my eyes' defects. But then they also take into account my subjective "feelings" by having me read distant letters with different lenses (starting from what the machine measured, but doing some slight variations). Maybe your doctor just used the machine to measure your eyesight?
A problem is that during the subjective measuring the optometrists reduce the strength until your vision get worse. But astigmatism does not affect the vision so much. Then they get, you have 20/20 vision with the correct glasses, and 20/20 vision with weaker glasses, so they give you weaker glasses, even though they cause some blurriness
I have astigmatism. It’s -0.5 at 80° in my right eye, -1.0 at 100° in my left eye. Meaning it’s 10 degrees off the vertical axis, different in each eye, symmetric to the face.
My “eye doctor” – my opthalmologist? — is a good doctor. Well educated, does a good job as a doctor. He gave me a straight -0.5 / -1.0 myopia prescription after measuring “some astigmatism”, said “this is fine”.
Then I went to a not-a-doctor guy. A licensed optician? Optometrist? Skilled and well-educated. He took the time to measure the precise degree of astigmatism and was careful to prescribe a close and practical match to the measured astigmatism. I had no idea he would do that, and no expectations of any difference whatsoever. And: Those glasses are MUCH better. I see better, see clearer, can work forever, don’t get tired in the eyes or head. Feel sharper.
I’m kind of reluctant to add this last part as it probably seems implausible, but my experience with this more detailed prescription for astigmatism is that it has allowed my depth perception to improve. Slowly. I thought I was imagining it, but it does make sense according to the optometrist and scientific papers. Basically if you get a better signal to the brain, you get better processing, better learning, better adaptation. And less tired.