Can people with astigmatism wear contacts?

Yes, we can. But we have to have a special type of lens (usually called a toric lens). AccuVue makes them, and several other brands do as well. That said, some astigmatisms are harder to correct than others. If you really want contacts, ask for a trial pair of disposables the next time you see your optician. You won't know how effective they'll be until you actually try them.

Yes, they make contacts for astigmatism. But if the curve of your eye is too severe, contacts would just be too expensive and might not work for you

It may be that the readily available contacts would not do a good job of correcting your particular astigmatism. There are speciality contacts that can correct for a wider range of problems, those these are very expensive. Some people are willing to sacrifice 20/20 vision for the convenience of contacts. I would find an eye doctor that can give you a better answer. Also, unless your prescription is really out there you should be able to get trial contact lenses to see if you are happy with them. There are eye doctors who are very good at this and some who do not want to take the time to deal with a difficult fit. Also, I hope you meant optometrist not optician. An optician is not qualified to give this type of advie.

Yep, there are special contacts for astigmatism and they're a bit more pricey than the normal ones.

Can't tell you why they told you that because we have no clue what your prescription is. There are lots of cases where contacts wouldn't be as effective as glasses but we have to know the complete prescription to see why. I'm sure your optician isn't a complete dummy, there must be a valid reason to say that, but without more info, we can't even hazard a guess as to whether he is right or not. EDIT ***** For Lynne, in the UK where this asker is from, they call an optometrist an optician. Secondly, In Canada, where I am, the opticians are very qualified to prescribe contacts and do many more fittings than optometrists do. Optometrists don't write Rx's for contacts in Canada, it's the opticians who do the fittings based on the glasses Rx from the optometrist, including prescribing the brand , fit and final powers. So, don't generalize and say opticians aren't qualified.

Yes, I have astigmatism and wear contact lenses all the time. Not all brands fits eyes with astigmatism though because of the shape which is not exactly the same as a normal eye. Apparently it has a football shape heheh. Also when you go for a vision test you need to ask for the complete one because they have to get more details than if you would want regular glasses. The brand I use is Frequency 55 I remember my optometrist told me their axis is calculate to the nearest 0.5 this is why they are made for astigmatism...

Your dr may have a valid reason for telling you not to get contacts, but i have astigmatism, also, and i have been wearing contacts since i was13, and i am 37 now.

You should be able to. ACUVUE had a commercial targeted for people with astigmatism too.

There are contact brands that are especially made for people with astigmatism so maybe research that and talk to you optician about them and if it right for you.