Astigmatism occurs when your cornea is shaped like an egg. With astigmatism, more than one focal point within the eye distorts what you see. As a result, you experience a tilting of images due to the unequal bending of light rays entering your eyes.
Many patients with myopia and hyperopia have some degree of astigmatism, or an oval shape, to their cornea. People with high degrees of astigmatism have blurred vision for both near and distant objects.
Below are the categories of severity for astigmatism:
- Mild Astigmatism < 1.00 diopters
- Moderate Astigmatism 1.00 to 2.00 diopters
- Severe Astigmatism 2.00 to 3.00 diopters
- Extreme Astigmatism > 3.00 diopters