Can Multifocal Contacts Be Used by Persons With Astigmatism?

A common myth is that individuals with astigmatism cannot wear most types of contacts, but modern toric contacts--which correct astigmatism--can treat numerous vision problems. Today, even individuals wearing multifocal contacts can wear toric contacts that are specially designed to correct astigmatism.

Early Solutions

• Before soft toric contacts, individuals with astigmatism were limited to wearing rigid gas-permeable contacts, and if the wearer needed multifocals, he or she wore a near-vision contact lens in one eye and a distance-vision contact lens in the other.

Benefits of RGP Contacts

• If you have mild astigmatism, Dr. Joseph T Barr at Bausch and Lomb confirms that rigid gas-permeable contacts, due to their hardness, can make your eye shape spherical, eliminating astigmatism's vision problems.

Soft Toric Contacts

• As Dr. Gary Heiting, associate editor of AllAboutVision.com, says that today even soft multifocal contacts can be made to correct astigmatism.

Design of Toric Contacts

• A soft toric contact lens is able to correct astigmatism with its varying degrees of thickness across the lens, which keeps the lens stable on the eye.

Multifocal Toric Contacts

• Multifocal toric contacts combine the toric design with the multifocal design, which relies on varying degrees of near-vision correction at different parts of the lens. This allows the wearer to enjoy sharp vision without loss of depth perception.