Lasik eye surgery essentially means that an ophthalmic surgeon will reshape your cornea in order to correct or enhance eye sight. Gone are the days of having to wear glasses or contact lenses for the rest of your life - this simple surgical procedure is transforming the way that people view the world. Lasik eye surgery can be effective in treating patients with myopia, hyperopia, presbyopia, and astigmatism - all are very common eye problems and now there is a simple procedure to correct them.

You may, however, have heard of other surgeries like PRK or Lasek that can be used for the treatment of sight disorders but healing times for patients that undergo Lasik eye surgery are significantly shorter. This surgery will have you back living life to the fullest in two to three days! Simply astounding!

Lasik Eye Surgery: The Procedure

Before the surgery you will need to have a consult with your ophthalmologist who will do some tests as well as take the necessary measurements in order to ensure that the precise amount of Lasik eye surgery correction you need has been calculated.

During your surgery an instrument called the microkeratome will be used to create a tiny corneal flap of corneal tissue from the surface of the eye. An excimer laser will then used to sculpt the bed of the cornea to match to the precise dimensions determined during your consult.

Once this has been completed, the flap will be replaced and nature allowed to take its course. Within a few hours of your surgery the flap will be sealed back into position and the eyes will be completely healed within a week.

Many people are afraid of eye surgery, but they shouldn’t be as these short procedures are conducted by the top trained professionals and can eliminate the need to wear glasses or contact lenses completely. It is well worth it!

Many people don’t fully understand the details of LASIK eye surgery, even those who are undergoing or about to undergo the procedure. Don’t be someone who waits until afterwards to discover the things you should have known beforehand. Be an informed consumer, especially with something as important as your vision.

The following are the pros and cons behind two of the most common misconceptions about LASIK.

1. “After the procedure, I’ll never need glasses or contacts again!”

Depending on your age at the time of the procedure and the issues with your vision that you’re trying to correct, you may or may not continue to need glasses or contacts, either immediately after surgery or possibly later on, as you age.

This is not to say that the procedure can’t be both effective and life-changing. It can be, and it generally is. The vast majority of patients who undergo the procedure report significant improvement in their vision.

It allows them to drive without glasses within days of their surgery. A small percentage require “enhancement” surgery, which is a second procedure, conducted to fix any over- or under-correction of your vision resulting from the first procedure.

Also, many people, as they age (generally between the ages of 40 and 50), develop poor vision for reading (called presbyopia). If you had LASIK surgery prior to developing presbyopia, you could still need reading glasses as you get older. Presbyopia is sometimes treated with Monovision LASIK, which corrects one eye for distance vision and the other eye for close vision.

However, even patients with Monovision are counseled to keep glasses on hand for those times when perfect distance or close vision or good depth perception (which requires both eyes) is necessary.

For most people, eye surgery reduces their use of glasses to only very specific situations and specialty vision needs, but it doesn’t remove the need for corrective lenses all together.

2. “LASIK wouldn’t be so common if it were risky.”

LASIK is surgery, and all surgeries come with certain risks. More than one million people had the procedure in the United States in 2006, and less than 1% of those patients experienced significant complications. This means that statistically, your chances of having an experience without significant complications are very, very good.

However, given that this is surgery on your eyes, and your eyes play a vital role in your everyday life, the risks are something you want to be aware of and take into consideration when deciding what’s right for you.

Possible complications range from minor (and temporary) increases in dry eye symptoms, to visually debilitating and permanent dry eye symptoms. A small percentage of patients lose vision at specific distances, which cannot be fixed with any kind of corrective lenses or follow-up surgery. Another small percentage of patients develop glare, halos, or double vision. For some, these problems are permanent, and Unfortunately, they’re especially noticeable in challenging visual situations, such as at night or in fog.

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, LASIK eye surgery is safe and effective for most corrections. (The worse your vision is prior to surgery, the less likely that this surgery is right for you.) Many ophthalmologists believe that the risks of long-term contact lens use may exceed the risk of LASIK, although the fact that the surgery has been around for less than 2 decades means that the long-term effects can not yet be known.

Conclusion

In general, the thing to keep in mind is that almost all LASIK patients end up with improved vision and good results. However, those who experience complications tend to be VERY unhappy (and vocal) about it, because our vision and our eyes play a central role in our lives. You don’t get your money back (generally) whether your vision is better or worse after surgery.

You shouldn’t let a vocal unhappy minority convince you that LASIK eye surgery is terrible, any more than you should let slick marketing campaigns convince you that it’s risk-free. Carefully discuss the visual situations you hope to correct, your various expectations, and all potential risks and complications with your surgeon in a consultation prior to surgery. And, as with any major medical procedure, it’s wise to get a second opinion.