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Can I still wear contacts that aren't toric?

(2 posts)

  1. liz
    Member

    Long back story: I have myopia and astigmatism. Last year I used regular (non-toric) disposable contact lenses, (the optometrist upped the prescription slightly to compensate). I stopped for a while and wore glasses, but recently decided to buy contacts again. I got toric disposables since my astigmatism had gone up. I'm finding them uncomfortable though. My eyes get kind of red when I take them out at the end of the day, which was never a problem when I used regular lenses, regardless of brand.

    So I'm wondering--can I still go back to wearing regular lenses, or is my astigmatism too high? It's -1.00 in both eyes.

    Thanks ahead. :)

    Posted 2 years ago #

  2. Footprintz
    Member

    It depends a lot on how high the spherical component of your prescription is.

    Adding -0.50 ( half of that -1.00 ) to the sphere usually masks it quite well, IF your sphere power is at least twice as strong as the Cylinder power to begin with. The higher the spherical power is, the easier it will be to ignore that cylinder.

    For instance, if you have - 3.00 - 1.00 X 90....then a - 3.50 sphere would usually work quite well. But if you have - 1.00 - 1.00 X 90....a - 1.50 sphere probably won't give you acceptable vision...although it might. Some people can tolerate a lot more than others.

    You would really have to get trial lenses in the spherical equivalent to know for sure. 1.00 D of astigmatism is borderline, some get along fine without it being fully corrected, but some find the slight blur too annoying.

    Good luck

    Posted 2 years ago #

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