LASIK - A now common procedure

One of the first things that springs to mind when considering corrective eye surgery is the term, “LASIK”. An acronym for “laser-assisted in-situ keratomileusis,” this rather common procedure is used to correct certain vision problems through refractive surgery.

Since its debut in the 1980s, there have been conflicting stories about what LASIK entails and whether or not it’s truly successful.

Laser eye surgery is typically used for those who suffer from nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism. Until the advent of LASIK, eyeglasses and contacts were used to treat these issues, but only served as aids to vision rather than corrections.

Those who have undergone a successful laser eye surgery procedure should find that their need for such aids are extremely diminished or eliminated altogether.

Reshaping your eyes

Technically speaking, LASIK eye surgery reshapes the cornea from within the eye itself using laser to accomplish the task.

If, for instance, your cornea is not shaped correctly to fit the dimensions of your eye, this procedure may be effective. By utilizing laser to extract bits of tissue from the cornea in order to reshape it, the refractive error can be corrected and the visual images will then be focused directly onto the retina, which may eliminate the need for aids such as eyeglasses and contact lenses.

After a thorough eye examination, you’ll be expected to choose a doctor to perform the LASIK eye surgery. Once this has been done, you’ll be scheduled for a consultation with the doctor to discuss the process, and you’ll have the opportunity to voice whatever questions or concerns that you may have prior to the procedure.

Don’t wear your glasses for up to a month before the op’

You should expect to be instructed not to wear your glasses or contact lenses for two to four weeks prior to your surgery, in order for the cornea to return to its natural shape, without interference from external visual aids.

When an individual wears contact lenses, for instance, the shape of the cornea is changed, so it’s important to remove these and leave them out for up to a month before surgery.

In addition, your doctor will instruct you not to apply any lotions, creams, make-up or other products around the area of the eyes for awhile prior to the procedure.

On the day of your LASIK eye surgery, you’ll receive anesthetic drops in each eye in order to eliminate pain. You’ll then be placed on a table which is positioned underneath the laser equipment, and the doctor will instruct you to look up at a small blinking light.

During your laser surgery, a special instrument will be utilized to hold your eye open, allowing the doctor to perform the LASIK surgery, while the other eye is protected by a shield.

With a couple of hours you’ll be on your way home

After making a small incision, the doctor will then expose the cornea, and apply the laser technology that’s needed to reshape and repair the eye. Once accomplished, the flap that was cut open to expose the cornea will be put back into position and will heal on its own, without the need for stitches. An hour or two after the surgery is completed, you’ll be allowed to go home.

Depending upon the individual, the amount of corrective treatment that was administered and the quickness of the healing process, what can be expected after surgery will vary from person to person.

Speak with your physician regarding recovery expectations before and after the surgery and follow any instructions that are given, in order to ensure a successful LASIK eye surgery experience.

Copyright 2005 Octocat Ltd

Contact lenses can get expensive, not to mention the fact
that you get tired of having to put them into and out of
your eyes every single day. With the advent of laser
surgery in the last decade, more and more people are
discovering that they can have 20/20 vision (or better)
without ever having to wear glasses again.

Laser surgery is expensive and it’s not generally covered
by insurance because it’s considered an elective procedure.
Some insurance companies will cover a very small portion,
leaving a general cost somewhere between $3000 and $4000
dollars. So immediately, it’s a cash investment of
significant portion.

Many clinics do offer financial payment plans, but they are
usually one or two year plans that allow you to spread out
the payments. This option can still cost you about$180 to
$400 per billing period, whether it is by the month or
quarter.

If the cost isn’t something to turns the option off to you
immediately, it’s good to weigh the facts. Everyone is a
candidate for laser corrective surgery. There are stages
to the evaluation, including the amount of correction
obtainable by corrective eyewear, shape of the eye, health
of the eye, and condition of the eye.

Following the evaluation process, the specialist can
determine which type of laser surgery, if any, they would
recommend.

The procedure is done as outpatient care. The eyes are
anaesthetized and held open. You’ll feel some pressure when
the laser surgery begins, and you might even experience a
few moments of blindness.

It is not uncommon for patients to experience blurriness
for a day or two following, but most patients notice an
immediate (if not profound) change in their vision when the
surgery is over.

Laser surgery isn’t a guarantee of correction. However,
doctors, as well as your own optometrist can never promise
20/20 vision at the surgery’s completion. You may still
need some form of corrective lenses. Laser surgery is a
popular and viable alternative when compared to the
lifetime investment in the cost of new corrective eyewear
every two or three years.

Ultimately, the procedure is not a guaranteed. The
decision to continue with contact lenses or try laser
corrective surgery is up to you and your doctor. The
surgery has proven successful for hundreds of patients, but
contact lenses are less expensive in the immediate time
frames and don’t involve surgery or lasers. Check out your
options. Consult your optometrist and decide which option
might be the best for you.

What was once a rare procedure is now a very common one. With hundreds of thousands being done it’s not as scary as it once was.

This easy procedure is now used all over the world to correct vision problems and to finally be able to throw away those glasses and contacts.

Since its debut in the 1980s, there have been conflicting stories about what LASIK entails and whether or not it’s truly successful.

If you have nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism they you are probably a canidate for this new technology. In some cases it will eliminate glasses and contacts and for other it could possible mean only having to use glasses occasionally.

What this surgery does is reshape your cornea, inside the eye itself using a laser.

Custom LASIK is a laser vision correction procedure that uses the unique visual characteristics of your eye to customize your treatment.

After a thorough eye examination, you’ll be expected to choose a doctor to perform the LASIK eye surgery. Once this has been done, you’ll be scheduled for a consultation with the doctor to discuss the process, and you’ll have the opportunity to voice whatever questions or concerns that you may have prior to the procedure.

Custom LASIK provides an additional level of precise data about your vision requirements using wavefront technology. A device called a wavefront analyzer measures the way light travels through your eye and compares it to the way light travels through an eye with perfect vision. This device then creates a 3-D wavefront map that is unique in the same way that your DNA is unique to you. Your wavefront map provides a detailed diagram of your vision that allows your doctor to provide you with truly personalized vision correction.

The best way for you to determine this is with a thorough exam from your eye doctor. Appropriate candidates must be at least 18 years old, in good general health, and have good eye health with no diseases such as cataracts or glaucoma. Laser vision correction can treat a very broad range of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.
Through an initial consultation with your eye doctor your doctor will confirm if you are a good candidate, explain the procedure, and answer your questions so that you can make an informed decision. He or she will explain what results you can reasonably expect by measuring your prescription and thoroughly examining your eyes.

While laser vision correction has proven overwhelmingly successful in reducing dependence on glasses and contact lenses, the degree of improvement may vary among individuals. How well and how quickly your vision improves depends on how well you heal and the severity of your prescription.

Although laser surgery does not promise patients “perfect” or 20/20 vision, most laser patients with mild to moderate prescriptions do achieve 20/20 vision or are within 1 to 2 lines of 20/20 vision on an eye chart.

Additionally, CustomLASIK has proven to be an exciting development. Clinical studies have shown that CustomLASIK can improve not only what you can see but how well you can see it.
In the past, all vision was measured using a standard vision chart. If you could see the letters, the doctor would proclaim your vision as a number, such as 20/20, 20/100, etc. But now, with CustomLASIK, doctors are able to focus on the quantity and quality of your vision.

Many patients who have had CustomLASIK are reporting being able to see clearer than ever before. Because CustomLASIK corrects the unique imperfections in each individual’s vision, it is likely that night vision will be improved.

Keep in mind, as a patient ages the need for reading glasses is quite common. You should see a doctor that will stand behind its patients’ distance vision results for life and have confidence in the stability of results over the long-term.

LASIK

Laser In-situ Keratomileusis or commonly known as LASIK is a surgical procedure that is used treat a wide range of refractive errors in the eye.

The eyeball, cornea or lens being shaped imperfectly causes refractive errors of the eyes. The three common types of problem resulting from refractive errors are as follows:

1. Myopia or nearsightedness. This condition is where only nearby or close objects appear clear to the eye.

2. Hyperopia or farsightedness. This condition is the opposite of myopia and it is where only objects far away or at a distance are clear to the eye. Commonly elderly people require glasses to read a book.

3. Astigmatism, these are where images are blurred at a distance and near. A combination of the above two conditions.

As indicated above, LASIK is a procedure-using laser that can change the above condition that results in patients seeing clearly. In effective, LASIK eliminates the reliance on glasses and contact lenses and thus increases the individual’s safety during outdoor activities or sport. In addition, the 24 hour corrected vision and improved conveniences are achieved with as little as 1% risk of side effects post surgery.

The LASIK procedure

Prior to the operation, anaesthetic is placed onto the surface of the eye to numb and reduce irritation. The eye surgeon then starts with an instrument (Microkeratome) to cut or peel a hinged thin flap of corneal tissue off the outer layer of the cornea or eyeball. The flap is then lifted to the side where the laser treatment can takes place.

The laser is then precisely pulsed to reshape the underlaying corneal tissue. The LASIK procedure uses an excimer laser, which is a new class of UV laser (approved by the FDA). It was originally developed for use in the microprocessor industry and later found its application in vision correction. These lasers have a much higher precision and accuracy that can change the shape of the cornea in the eye. It does this by breaking the intra molecular bonds in the collagen molecules during the laser pulse and thereby improving the way light is focused or “refracted” by the eye.

One pulse of the laser can remove and reshape the internal cornea with an accuracy of +/-0.25 microns. To understand the accuracy of one micron, a grain of salt is about 60 microns and the eye can see particles to about 40 microns. It would take about 200 pulses from an excimer laser just to cut a human hair in half. Once the corneal is adjusted, the flap is laid back to the original position prior to the cut and serves as a protective layer during the healing process. The whole process takes only 15 minutes for each eye, which is why LASIK has become popular.

After the procedure, the healing takes place quite rapidity as the cornea bonds quickly. Healing can vary from three days to a week with a final clear vision obtained. Your are now ready to view and see the whole world without glasses or contact lens.

To find out the latest news on LASIK, I suggest you visit some online LASIK sites.

The world of ophthalmology is one of the fastest evolving fields of medicine. Never before have so many new techniques and scientific breakthroughs emerged in such a short period of time. LASIK surgery, which uses an excimer laser to reshape the cornea, offers millions of people the opportunity to reduce or eliminate their need for glasses or contacts.

Television and radio ads are filled with amazing stories about LASIK surgery as the fast and painless way to correct vision, but stories are also appearing about people for whom it was less than successful. Before you opt to go under the beam, what can you do to help ensure that you will be happy with your results?

The key to safe surgery in any field of medicine is an informed patient. Take a little time and research the LASIK center you are considering for laser eye surgery.

1. Find a doctor by getting referrals from other doctors or from patients who have had LASIK or laser vision correction.

2. Don’t be fooled by fancy advertisements about a particular laser center. Choose the doctor, not the laser center. Find out who will actually do your procedure, then ask about that doctor’s qualifications (e.g., board certification, special training).

3. Choose a doctor who has done at least 5,000 LASIK or eye laser surgeries. What a doctor doesn’t know can hurt you.

4. Ask for information on your doctor’s LASIK eye surgery complication rates. If your doctor won’t tell you, find another one. For top surgeons, the figure is under 3 in 1,000.

5. Ask what measures are taken to prevent infection. Look for a center with a sterile or dust-free operating room. Make sure that disposable parts are not reused. Insist that your eye be thoroughly sterilized, and insist that the surgical instruments be sterilized before your eye laser surgery to eliminate the risk of transmission of HIV or hepatitis.

6. Beware of advertisements pushing “low cost” LASIK surgery. Discount surgery is as good as a discount parachute. The potential savings are not worth the risk of receiving less than expert care!

7. Expect to see very well after LASIK, but don’t expect to see perfectly. Each patient gets a slightly different result. The best surgeon in the world can’t guarantee 20/20 vision. As with any eye laser surgery, results are as individual as each patient. Beware of any doctor who promises 20/20 vision.

8. If you feel like you’re getting a hard sell, you probably are. Go elsewhere. You’re not buying a car; this is real LASIK eye surgery.

9. If your level of nearsightedness is more than -11 or so, implantable lenses will probably offer better vision than LASIK. Consider waiting until the new lenses are available. Ask your doctor about them and other recent advances.

10. While you investigate, don’t lose sight of the benefits: for most people a lifetime of bad vision can be cured in 5 minutes. LASIK eye surgery has improved the eyesight of millions of people around the world.