3 Things to Know About Toric Contact Lenses

Posted by Lucas Bell on June 21st, 2018

You might have heard that toric lenses are the contact lenses for astigmatism, but what exactly are they and how do they help? Let us walk through how to put on the contact lenses and how precisely they work as well as things to consider if you think you need them.

What are Toric Contact Lenses?

A toric contact lens is made in a specific way and usually the standard contact lenses have a spherical surface.

A torus, in contrast, is a geometrical shape that almost looks like a donut and the toric lens is shaped like a slice of the side of this donut.  The shape of a toric contact lens is such that it creates different refractive, or focusing, powers on both the vertical and horizontal orientations. The refractive strength increase or decreases gradually as you move around the lens.

Contact Lenses for Astigmatism

Basically, the toric contact lenses correct for astigmatism issues that erupts from a different curvature of the cornea or lens in your eyes. In such cases, the cornea or the lens is curved so that the refraction of your eye differs between the vertical and horizontal planes. This makes the vision blurry and you find trouble seeing the fine details. Sometimes, even the vertical lines will appear to the tilt. The ability for the contact lenses to provide different refractive powers on the vertical and horizontal orientations gives rise to this specific peculiarity that causes astigmatism.

How to Choose the Toric Contact Lenses?

Just like all the contact lenses, the toric contacts are prescribed by your doctor and according to doctor’s prescription you can choose the lenses that are perfect for your vision, and fit your eyes too. So, if you think that you need contact lenses for astigmatism or other vision problems, do talk to your eye doctor.

Some important things to consider are:

•  Fitting of the lens is very critical for the toric contact lenses.
•  As the toric contact lenses have a specific orientation, they need to be on your eyes in a correct manner. The manufacturers design the toric contact lenses keeping in mind the features to help the lenses stay put, the thin and thick zones of the lens, truncation of lens and the ballasting, where the lens is slightly thicker or heavier.

This states that the exact fitting of the contact lenses to your eyes is way more important than usual. The middle axis of the toric contact lenses is like the Earth’s equator which helps in keeping your line of vision much clear.