LASIK, How It Works, Cost, Risks…CLICK to Discover

Why would one go for LASIK surgery? Primarily because it is generally accepted these days that that surgery comes with the promise of improving one’s vision permanently so that the need for glasses or contact lenses is no longer there. So you are no longer dependent on them. In a way, you discover new liberty and freedom.

So whom do you go to for a LASIK surgery? To the optometrist, of course. The first thing he will do is to conduct a number of tests on you to see if you are the right candidate for this surgery. Basically this eye surgery is used to cure three main types of eye conditions myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. Myopia, also know as nearsightedness is the problem of not being able to see what is far away without glasses. Hyperopia, also known as farsightedness, is the other way round. Astigmatism is something different where the patient has irregularities in his cornea which as a result distorts the image formed on the retina of the eye.

What will the optometrist be looking for? There are a few basic things that any optometrist will look for before a eye surgery. That would primarily include your eye health history. In case of a particular few diseases the chances of you undergoing a this surgery will significantly decrease. These would include glaucoma, herpes, eye injuries or thin corneas.

Any of these conditions can disqualify you as a suitable candidate for eye surgery. Another important criterion is whether there has been an alteration in your eyewear prescription over the last year. Before this operation your eyes should be steady. If they are not then the optometrist might just postpone the surgery for a few months until he is satisfied that your eyes are ready to undergo that surgery.

These are some of the basic things that you need to know as part of your pre-surgery preparation. Of course once you are considered suitable for the operation the doctor will brief you about the surgery itself and post operative care.

In this article we will try to provide you with an objective point of view of the various complications that might be a result of a eye surgery.

Problems that might be caused due to they are double vision, glare, and halo. One’s nighttime vision can also be affected, especially for certain operation procedures. Even permanent blurry vision and diminished contrast may be the effects of this surgery.

The capacity to distinguish an item from its neighboring backdrop is a problem of contrast sensitivity. The reduction in contrast sensitivity is a comparatively common occurrence after this operation, particularly in patients with high amounts of myopia.

The occurrence of a second, generally fainter, image of an object next to the original object, creating an indistinct vision is what double vision or ghosting is. This problem is generally an effect of irregular astigmatism brought on by surgery. Like several other lasik-related vision problems, double vision often goes away over a period of time.

Starbursts cause a person to see lights as blurred. Often spikes or rays of light seem to radiate out of the center of the light source. Generally it affects night time vision, but in some cases, it might be a problem for all light sources at any time of the day.

However, there have been significant advances in this eye surgery and the risks have also diminished significantly. New innovations like Iris registration and Intralase promise to take the risk factor down to as little as 1%. That would be a remarkable achievement. However, a lot of the risk factor is also dependent on the experience and expertise of the surgeon.

Surgeons who have performed more than 500 such operations can be considered to be experienced enough. Of course the more experienced the surgeon is the more price will you have to pay for him to operate on you. Also to keep it safe, surgeons often operate only one eye so that the risks are limited to one eye only.

Moreover, the operation takes extremely little time to complete with each eye being operated in under 10 minutes. That is remarkable for any operation and it can only be achieved because much of the operation these days is computer guided. Not that the expertise of the surgeon doesn’t matter. It does, and very much so.

This surgery is a great way to deal with the problem of astigmatism. Now what is astigmatism. Astigmatism is where the patient has irregularities in his cornea which as a result distorts the image formed on the retina of the eye. That can actually rectify this problem and help the patient to live a normal life.

You would now be curious about how actually the lasik operation is performed. Here is a synopsis for you. First a mild anesthetic will be administered. Also eye drops are used to numb the eye and avoid pain during the operation. Though the operation is pain free there have been patients who have complained of discomfort. Once the eye is numb, a little device known as the microkeratome is attached to a suction ring placed on the eye. The microkeratome has a blade which cuts a thin flap on the surface of the cornea.

The doctor will next fold back the flap and expose the stroma which is basically a layer of tissue. The stroma is searched for debris and is then dried. Now the surgeon will ask you to focus on a fixed spot while he, with the aid of laser mends the corneal tissue according to results of pre-operation examination. Once through, the flap is put back to position and an eye patch is provided to allow it to heal.

This operation is also highly effective in other conditions related to the eye. These would include myopia and hyperopia. While the former doesn’t allow you to see things at a distance, the latter is exactly the opposite where you cannot read the newspaper without the reading glasses.