The following are health and medical definitions of terms that appear in the Astigmatism article. Astigmatism: A common form of visual impairment in which part of an image is blurred, due to an irregularity in the curvature of the front surface of the eye, the cornea. The curve of the cornea is shaped more like an American football or a rugby ball rather than a normal spherical basketball. Light rays entering the eye there are not uniformly focused on the retina. Rays entering through the more-curved surface are focused before the rays coming through the less-curved surface. The light is focused clearly along one plane but is blurred along the other. The result is blurred vision at all distances. Only part of what you are looking at is in clear focus at any one time.
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Blurred vision: Lack of sharpness of vision with, as a result, the inability to see fine detail. Blurred vision can occur when a person who wears corrective lens is without them. Blurred vision can also be an important clue to eye disease.
Condition: The term "condition" has a number of biomedical meanings including the following: - An unhealthy state, such as in "this is a progressive condition."
- A state of fitness, such as "getting into condition."
- Something that is essential to the occurrence of something else; essentially a "precondition."
- As a verb: to cause a change in something so that a response that was previously associated with a certain stimulus becomes associated with another stimulus; to condition a person, as in behavioral conditioning.
Cornea: The clear front window of the eye that transmits and focuses light into the eye.
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Corneal: Pertaining to the cornea, the clear front window of the eye that transmits and focuses light into the eye.
Diagnosis: 1 The nature of a disease ; the identification of an illness. 2 A conclusion or decision reached by diagnosis. The diagnosis is rabies . 3 The identification of any problem. The diagnosis was a plugged IV.
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Disease: Illness or sickness often characterized by typical patient problems (symptoms) and physical findings (signs). Disruption sequence: The events that occur when a fetus that is developing normally is subjected to a destructive agent such as the rubella (German measles) virus.
Eye: The organ of sight. The eye has a number of components. These components include but are not limited to the cornea, iris, pupil, lens, retina, macula, optic nerve, choroid and vitreous.
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Farsightedness: Medically termed hyperopia; the ability to see distant objects more clearly than close objects.
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Fatigue: A condition characterized by a lessened capacity for work and reduced efficiency of accomplishment, usually accompanied by a feeling of weariness and tiredness. Fatigue can be acute and come on suddenly or chronic and persist.
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Hyperopia: Farsightedness; the ability to see distant objects more clearly than close objects.
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Laser: A powerful beam of light that can produce intense heat when focused at close range. Lasers are used in medicine in microsurgery, cauterization, for diagnostic purposes, etc. For example, lasers are employed in microsurgery to cut tissue and remove tissue.
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Lens: The transparent structure inside the eye that focuses light rays onto the retina (the nerve layer that lines the back of the eye, senses light and creates impulses that go through the optic nerve to the brain). The lens was named after the lentil bean because it resembled it in shape and size.
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Medication: 1. A drug or medicine. 2. The administration of a drug or medicine. (Note that "medication" does not have the dangerous double meaning of "drug.")
Myopia: Nearsightedness, the ability to see close objects more clearly than distant objects.
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Nearsightedness: The ability to see near objects more clearly than distant objects. Also called myopia.
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Ophthalmologist: An eye doctor. A physician practicing ophthalmology. An ophthalmologist is an M.D.
Optometrist: A health care professional who is licensed to provide primary eye care services: - to examine and diagnose eye diseases such as glaucoma , cataracts , and retinal diseases and, in certain states in the U.S., to treat them;
- to diagnose related systemic (bodywide) conditions such as hypertension and diabetes that may affect the eyes;
- to examine, diagnose and treat visual conditions such as nearsightedness , farsightedness , astigmatism and presbyopia ; and
- to prescribe glasses, contact lenses, low vision rehabilitation and medications as well as perform minor surgical procedures such as the removal of foreign bodies.
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Posture: The carriage of the body as a whole, the attitude of the body, or the position of the limbs (the arms and legs).
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Prescription: A physician's order for the preparation and administration of a drug or device for a patient. A prescription has several parts. They include the superscription or heading with the symbol "R" or "Rx", which stands for the word recipe (meaning, in Latin, to take); the inscription, which contains the names and quantities of the ingredients; the subscription or directions for compounding the drug; and the signature which is often preceded by the sign "s" standing for signa (Latin for mark), giving the directions to be marked on the container.
Retinal: Pertaining to the retina , the extraordinary layer of neurons (nerve cells) that line the back of the eye, which can sense light and create impulses capable of voyaging through the optic nerve to the brain where the impulses are recognized as an image.
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Surgery: The word "surgery" has multiple meanings. It is the branch of medicine concerned with diseases and conditions which require or are amenable to operative procedures. Surgery is the work done by a surgeon. By analogy, the work of an editor wielding his pen as a scalpel is s form of surgery. A surgery in England (and some other countries) is a physician's or dentist's office.
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Visual acuity: The clarity or clearness of the vision, a measure of how well a person sees. The ability to distinguish details and shapes of objects; also called central vision.
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- LASIK Eye Surgery - Get information about LASIK, refractive surgery for vision correction (of astigmatism, nearsightedness, farsightedness), risk factors (dry eyes, high myopia or hyperopia) and benefits.
- Eye Care - Get information on eye care tips and eye health, disorders and treatment with OTC eye-care products, and when to see an ophthalmologist about an eye infection or condition.
- Questions To Ask Before Surgery - Surgery questions to ask prior to having a procedure are important. Your surgeon should be available to answer your surgery questions prior to the procedure.
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