I have astigmatism – can I wear contacts?

Astigmatism is a long word for distorted vision; you see a perfectly round tennis ball as egg-shaped, for example. It’s a result of having an irregularly shaped cornea. That’s the clear tissue at the front of the eye that covers its iris and pupil.

If you suffer from astigmatism you may also have myopia or hyeropia - nearsightedness or farsightedness for the rest of us. So you’ll probably need a contact lens that corrects the myopic or hyperopic condition as well as the astigmatism.

They’re called toric lenses and they’re nifty little devices, because they combine the ability to correct more than defect, and they also have a stabilizing mechanism that keeps them flush with your eyeball when you move it or blink.

You might not even need a toric lens if your astigmatism is a minor one. Often a normal spherical lens will suffice. The most important point is that the lens fits properly. Your optometrist will help.