OD's/Opticians: HELP! RGP's and Astigmatism...?

Question

Is there such as thing as toric RGP's, or do ALL rigid lenses only correct for corneal astigmatism, by conforming the tear film into a lens over the misshaped cornea?

I have almost exclusively lenticular astigmatism, and I wear soft torics (Purevision), which correct fairly well--but after hearing about the higher quality optics with RGP's, I am very curious about "upgrading" my vision. My new OD says that due to my lenticular astigmatism, my desires to wear the Macrolens or Synergeyes, or any RGP's, are probably not going to work out well. He strongly suggested that sticking with the soft torics--or any lens/eyeglasses with cylinder correction--is the right ticket for those of us with pure lenticular astigmatism... He said he was going to have to research toric RGP's...

I am picky about my vision and would like to get vision with contacts that is as good and crisp and clear as with my glasses...

Any feedback, suggestions, ideas are most appreciated...!

Answer 1

Note on Synergeyes:  Synergeyes work very, very well for corneal astigmatism, but do not work for lenticular (internal) astigmatism, which is what you have.  So either soft torics or RGP torics are going to be your best option.

Answer 2

RGP lenses will correct your corneal astigmatism.  They might be just right for you.

We used to fit hard lenses with all sorts of corrections.

Sometimes vision is better than with glasses.

Answer 3

You should give Synergeyes a try. I heard one of the doctor's say that they're supposed to be the new "cure-all", but the jury's still out on that one.

However - when the doctor's had me do some research on how other offices where pricing the fitting and the lenses themselves, most offices were apprehensive on actually fitting them.

Good luck!

Answer 4

Ok.  You're about to get a quick course in RGP contact lenses.

Standard RGP contact lenses do a very good job of dealing with corneal astigmatism.  The lens masks the distortion in the cornea by substituting a perfectly shaped anterior surface of the contact lens in place of the distorted surface of the cornea.  As you mentioned, though, if the amount of your overall astigmatism in your glasses prescription is not equal to the amount of distortion in the cornea this means that you have some astigmatism coming from some other source than the cornea.  The most common source of this type of astigmatism is the lens of your eye.  Placing an RGP over a non astigmatic cornea will have no effect on astigmatism from a lenticular source.  SO, in these cases, a toric (astigmatic) RGP can be very effective in providing clear vision.  This type of contact lens can correct for BOTH corneal and lenticular astigmatism at the same time by masking corneal distortion and also providing actual astigmatic correction in the lens itself.  Toric RGP's are more difficult to fit than standard RGP's so it would be best to have them fit by someone who has experience.  As to whether it would be better to stay with a soft toric, I would have to examine you myself and listen to your concerns before making a recommendation.  So you probably should depend upon the advice of your fitting doctor.  If you are unsuccesful with soft toric lenes, though, I would look into RGP torics.  Hope this helped.

EDIT:  As to synergeyes, you should not expect any different VISION with a synergeyes lens than a standard RGP.  They may be more COMFORTABLE to wear but the mechanics of the vision correction are identical to standard RGP lenses.