Our patient is named Simon. He suffers from severe astigmatism.
Both his near and distant vision is extremely blurred. At night, he experiences halos around lights thereby rendering driving in low light conditions rather harrowing.
At times, Simon also experiences eyestrain and headaches.
Extremely high cylinder for extreme astigmatism: -16.00 & -19.00
Astigmatism is relatively common; most people will have correction in their lenses to allow for astigmatism.
As a reminder, astigmatism is a generally treatable imperfection in the curvature of the eye that causes both distance and near vision to be blurred. It can also cause halos around lights in low-light conditions.
Astigmatism occurs when either the cornea (front surface of the eye) or the lens inside the eye has mismatched curves. This means the eye is shaped like a Rugby League ball rather than a spherical Soccer ball!
In a lens script, astigmatism is corrected with cylinder (or cyl). Cyl indicates the amount of lens power needed to correct astigmatism.
Most people require a cyl of 1 dioptre or less. However, it’s not unusual for astigmatic prescriptions to reach as high as 3 dioptres.
This is where Simon’s script is highly unusual: he requires a cyl of -19.00 dioptres in his left eye, and -16.00 dioptres of cyl in his right eye.
The impossible solution are lenses made with specialised tooling by a specifically trained optical technician.
Regular laboratories cannot cater for a cyl of -19.00 or -16.00 dioptres in their lenses. This is much too high and requires too much precision.
There is no room for error when dealing with patients who have extreme astigmatism.
However, our impossible solution has been manufactured by a highly specialised optical laboratory. The laboratory has invested significantly in specialised tools and invested in training optical staff to work with precise prescriptions like these.
This impossible solution means Simon can now enjoy significantly improved visual acuity in comfort. It is life changing!
At Younger Optics we have a history steeped in innovation and a swag of optical world firsts under our belt.
As such, we attract and surround ourselves with fellow innovators to cultivate a network of clever optical laboratories. Drawing on this network, we can help you find seemingly impossible solutions for challenging patient scripts!
So next time you encounter an unsolvable script, share your challenge with us. We can refer you to one of these ingenious optical laboratories.
We love providing support to help your patients see better, along with sharing our knowledge and network!
Contact Younger Optics:
Email: info@youngeroptics.com.au
Phone: +61 8 8241 9800
