Astigmatism And Gas Permeable Contacts.?
November 20, 2009 by admin
Filed under FAQ on advance for astigmatism
I have a feeling that my eyecare place is not listening to me, because I’m young (22) and therefore essentially ripping me off. But I don’t have the money to be ripped off because I’m barely able to have food on the table outside of bills, but it’s really important to me that I have contacts. So if anyone could help it would be great.
I went in to get contacts the optometrist ordered me Frequency 55 Toric lenses the prescription was -3.00 -3.25×150 for the left eye. But I couldn’t see out of my left eye at all. Couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. And the young girl got really snippy with me and told me I was basically wasting there time over the phone when my new one came in.
So I went in for the contact lens check and he said that he didn’t know if the staff ordered me the wrong contact or if he didn’t make the astigmatism correction high enough, i told him I had the empty package at home and I would bring it in. But in the mean time he was going to order me a contact with a higher correction. So the new prescription, same lens brand which i could see out of was -3.00 -3.75 x180.
Are those the same prescriptions? Just different astigmatism corrections?
I mean I feel dizzy from wearing these contacts but I didn’t even want to say anything because of how rude his staff is all the time.
So upon leaving to go order the contacts the that staff member tells me it will be 388 dollars for 1 year of soft contacts. And I said “My contacts have been like 125-150 before. But never almost 400 dollars.” And really rudely she said “Well obviously your astigmatism has changed a lot and you’re going to have to pay more”. So I asked if I could do gas permeable, because although they’re expensive too at least they last longer then a year and they would be a good investment she said “Do you know they actually hurt going into your eye, they aren’t like soft contacts.” And i said I was aware of that and i would get used to them, could I still do it. and she said I don’t know you’ll have to talk to the doctor. So she went back and apparently talked to him and came out and said that my astigmatism was too high to get GP contacts.
Is that true? Aren’t GP contacts made for astigmatism? How can it be too high?
The left lens was blurry because the axis was off 30 degrees not because the lens wasn’t strong enough. That’s a big error, and indicates a mistake was made somewhere by someone.
Regular gas perms automatically correct small amounts of astigmatism, but unfortunately you have a large amount which will leave some residual astigmatism from lens warpage unless you get toric gas perms or preferably bitoric gas perms for good consistent vision.
Gas perms do last a lot longer if you don’t warp the lens by rough handling or loose it. Replacements are expensive and hard to duplicate. These lenses cost a lot because they are costly to make and hard to fit precisely.
If money is a problem ask the doctor to fit you with the cheapest torics he can get.
RGPs are made for astimatism, the intial cost is more than getting a years supply of disposables but they last for 3-5 years.
I use conventional soft lens which have lasted me more than 2 years of occasional use($400AUD), but tried Frequency Exel XR Toric for a year and they cost me $700AUD.
If I were you I’d find another optician.
It’s a lot more complicated than that – rgp lenses are sometimes very good for astigmatism – but it depends on a few factors – basically the shape of your cornea and how that relates to your astigmatism.
They can sometimes be cheaper but if you need a toric rgp lens then those can also be expensive. Modern rgp lenses aren’t really designed to last forever either (partly because the manufacturers want you to buy more lenses but also because the newer healthier materials don’t last so well). It’s not your astigmatism being too high that causes the problem but sometimes it just not being right – but anything is possible if you know what you’re doing.
It actually sounds like they don’t know what they’re doing – either the optometrist isn’t too experienced with contact lenses (particularly rigid ones for funny prescriptions) or their record keeping is poor. Changing your axis from 150 to 180 isn’t something that happens usually – and if it does they would know exactly what to do – you just compensate for any rotation.
Your best bet would be to try somewhere else – it’ll actually be cheaper to get something that fits you properly – you should be able to see and if not there should be a good reason that is fixable by the optometrist.