Refractive errors occur when light that enters the eye doesn’t focus on the retina in the back of the eye. This happens when the shape of the eye causes the light to refract improperly.
This results in a blurry or unfocused image. There are many types of refractive errors and ways to correct them.
Types of Refractive Errors
While you may not be familiar with refractive errors, it’s something millions have. Anyone with glasses or contacts has some kind of refractive error.
Refractive errors include nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism.
Myopia is more commonly known as nearsightedness. This happens when the light focuses in front of the retina. People with myopia have difficulty seeing things further away.
Hyperopia or farsightedness is the opposite. With farsightedness, light focuses behind the retina. This causes difficult if you’re trying to see things close up.
Astigmatism occurs when either the cornea or lens of the eye or both are misshapen. This will usually result in an eye that is more of a football shape, rather than a baseball shape.
A misshapen eye causes blurry vision. Astigmatism can come in varying degrees and most people experience a low amount of it. Astigmatism can also be present in conjunction with myopia or hyperopia.
Presbyopia is a type of refractive error that occurs over time with age. This happens due a stiffening of the lens. As the lens becomes less flexible, it makes it harder to adjust to seeing different distances.
External Corrective Options
There are a variety of ways you can use to combat refractive errors. The easiest way is by getting glasses.
After seeing your eye doctor, you’ll get a prescription for either glasses or contacts. Without an accurate prescription, your vision can’t be properly corrected.
There are many different styles of glasses, depending on your fashion and lifestyle. Glasses are great but they can make some situations harder than they need to be.
This is especially true when it comes to participating in sports or performing. Contacts can seem intimidating at first but once you are familiar with them, they are an easy option.
Contacts are less visible than glasses, which makes them attractive to people.
Surgical Corrective Options
If you’re a good candidate, the best option for fixing refractive errors is a procedure like LASIK. LASIK has a high success rate and is a short and non-invasive procedure.
During this process, you’ll have your cornea reshaped using lasers. Reshaping the cornea is what fixes and corrects refractive errors. This is possible because a small amount of corneal tissue is actually removed from the eye.
In most cases, after a short recovery period, patients end up with 20/20 vision after LASIK or better! After all, LASIK has a 96% success rate with patients who have undergone it for a reason.
Tired of living with glasses and contacts every day? Contact Colorado Eye Consultants in Littleton, CO to schedule a LASIK consultation!
Don’t you want to know if you can say goodbye to glasses and contacts, once and for all?
