Can contacts correct for astigmatism better than glasses?

[rconde01]

I am a 43 year old computer programmer who read gobs of text on the computer screen all day. I started wearing glasses about 10 years ago and my vision has steadily declined. I've just had an exam and got a stronger prescription for working only on the computer but i'm still disappointed with the sharpness of my vision when working. I have come to think the major problem is not the overall focus, but my astigmatism leading to multiple overlapping images of the text. It seems like contacts could potentially do a better job at correcting astigmatism since they move with the eye and can potentially "normalize" the shape of my cornea - but most discussions about astigmatism and contacts focus on the fact that it's possible now, not whether it can be better than glasses. Is it possible I might have a better result with contacts or do I just need to live with the quality I get with glasses?

[JohnHaganMD]

You first need to be sure you have a healthy, disease free eye. To do that you need to see an Eye MD ophthalmologist not an optometrist especially a 'Chain store optom".   If your vision is not clear with glasses you need besides dilated eye exam a cornea topography and macular OCT.  Contacts are a waste of your time and money. They would have to be bifocal contacts and at age 41 your success rate would be about 5%

[rconde01]

Ok - I will make an appointment with an Ophthalmologist. To be clear (no pun intended), my vision is reasonable for general daily purposes...but not as I would hope for my work. To clarify, assuming that my eyes are healthy, are you saying that a more thorough exam should allow me to get a glasses prescription which will meet my needs?