06 Feb What Is Prism Correction In Eyeglasses?
Prism correction in eyeglasses addresses visual deficits due to misalignment of the eyes. When done correctly, it’s a great thing for anyone suffering from double vision or trouble concentrating.
It does this by bending light before it enters the eye, allowing your brain to create one clear image. The amount of prism required is established by eye care professionals during a routine eye exam. This correction helps to relieve visual discomfort and improve visual acuity, allowing individuals with these disorders to perform daily activities more effectively. Read more below:
What Is Prism Correction?
Using prism correction in eyeglasses can help address certain vision issues. It accomplishes this by altering the incoming angle of light into your eyes. In short, you increase the thickness of one side of the lens compared to the other.
This design refracts the light inward or outward depending on the position of the prism. This bending produces a prismatic effect, which serves to redirect the light to a position that is in sync with the position of your eyes. If your eyes struggle to focus as a team, prism lenses may be a solution. They steer the light in such a way that both eyes focus on the same point.
Prism lenses can be used to fix misaligned eyes. They use prism correction to treat double vision and other focusing problems. Many have suffered needlessly, but with the help of prism correction they can find relief and improvement.
How Prism Lenses Work
Prism lenses change the path of light as it enters your eyes, allowing your brain to better align images that are misaligned. The magic happens in the lens design. A prism lens is not the same thickness all the way through, like a normal lens. Instead, one section of the lens is greater so that one gets a prismatic effect in the spectacles. The resulting change in thickness causes light to bend as it travels through the lens. That redirection directs the light to the precise location your brain expects it to be.
For example, if your right eye is unable to focus as it should, a prism correction assists with this. Because it focuses rays of light to the precise location they should be, your vision is sharper and your eyes work less.
The prism profile is essential as well. Imagine it as a three-dimensional pyramid with a heavy bottom and a pointed top. Light will bend in the direction of the base of the prism. This bending of light helps to align the images your eyes are perceiving. Depending on your unique needs, the prism correction can be balanced in one or both lenses. For more long-term options, the prism is incorporated more permanently into the lens.
Adjusting Eye Alignment With Prism Lenses
Prism lenses have foolproof ways of “tricking” the brain, such as aligning images. This occurs even when the eyes are slightly misaligned. The lenses work by bending incoming light. This adjustment further assists the brain in combining the images into one, coherent picture.
For those individuals who require stronger prism corrections, the lenses could potentially have a more visible thicker side. With new lens treatments, such as scratch resistant coatings, and anti-reflective coatings, they are just as functional as they are tough.
In addition to resisting harmful UVA and UVB rays, these treatments bring added benefits to your eyewear. Prism lenses offer a world of better visual comfort and clarity, whether you require a small or large correction.
Conditions Treated By Prism Lenses
Double vision, or diplopia, happens when you can see two images of one object. This can be due to many issues, usually involving the way that your eyes coordinate. Prism lenses are specifically calibrated to guide light to the appropriate portion of your eye. This allows your brain to focus on and process one sharp image.
For instance, conditions such as strabismus, in which the eyes are severely misaligned, often cause double vision. Muscle imbalances can prevent the eyes from moving in synchronization. Neurological conditions, including stroke or multiple sclerosis, may lead to this misalignment. Concussions inflict significant trauma to your head and usually affects the position of your eyes, causing double vision. In both of these scenarios, prism lenses may help alleviate the burden on your eyes as they try to correct.
Graves’ disease can cause proptosis, or bulging eyes, and alignment problems. Myasthenia gravis causes ocular muscle dysfunction that can cause a disruption in eye movement. In cases of double vision, prism lenses correct the root cause. In doing so, they help alleviate associated symptoms like dizziness, headaches, and trouble concentrating.
Prescription For Prism Glasses
The first step to obtaining prism glasses is a trip to your eye care professional. This is not only to determine if you need corrective lenses but more importantly how well your eyes are working together. An eye exam is able to determine what eye condition needs to be treated.
Not all prism glasses are created equal—not all eyes are created equal. Individualization is everything. Individuals with Graves’ disease, double vision, or strabismus will all need different configurations.
After your eye exam is completed, your optometrist will provide a prescription indicating how much prism correction is needed. If it’s your first time, don’t be shy to ask questions about the lenses. Ask about their thickness and how they can improve your everyday vision!
Conclusion
Prism correction in eyeglasses improves a patient’s quality of life by helping individuals with double vision or other related visual disturbances due to misaligned eyes see better. Because of this, everyday tasks such as reading, driving, or even walking are much more comfortable. They prevent straining and eye focusing fatigue, providing you more comfort and quality of life.
If you’re struggling with double vision or similar symptoms, act today. Discuss with your eye doctor and find out whether prism glasses might be right for you. Schedule an appointment with Dr. D’Orio Eyecare today by visiting https://drdorioeyecare.com/book-appointment/ or by calling us at 416-656-2020 for our Toronto location, or 416-661-5555 for our North York location.
