If you have poor eyesight and you have worn eyeglasses or contact lenses all your life, then you might want to consider LASIK eye surgery.

LASIK is the acronym for Laser-Assisted in Situ Keratomileuses. This is a procedure where the patient has to undergo surgery to reduce or totally eliminate a person’s poor eyesight.

There are certain eye imperfections that cause poor eyesight. Examples of these are:

- Astigmatism

A person with astigmatism sees ‘distorted’ imaged which is a result of deformities or irregularities on the lenses of the eyes.

- Nearsightedness

A person who is nearsighted has a condition called myopia. Here, the patient experiences difficulties seeing objects at a distance.

- Farsightedness

On the other hand, a person who is farsighted sees far objects without difficulty but the same does not apply to near objects. This condition is
also called hyperopia.

To treat these ailments, LASIK eye surgery is used, and this is the most common method of refractive surgery performed for patients nowadays.

‘The Procedure’

In LASIK surgery, there is a knife-like tool that is mainly used for the procedure: the microkeratome.

This is used to produce a very thin and rounded flap in the clear, outer layer covering the front or the eye which is the cornea. A more technologically-advanced way to create this flap is by the use of laser.

The shape of the cornea is changed permanently once this surgery is performed.

After the flap on one side of the eye is produced, this is folded back to reveal the stroma. The stroma is the mid-section of the cornea.

Afterwards, the microkeratome or the laser beam will vaporize a part of the stroma by producing computer-controlled pulses.

Then, the flap is put back into place after making the necessary corrections.

There are other types of refractive surgery that may be performed on a patient,depending on the degree of visual disability.

‘The Pros & Cons’

This type of surgery that aims to correct poor vision is very popular. Why do you think this is so? Here is a list of the advantages of LASIK eye surgery:

1. You will not feel pain while undergoing the procedure.

2. The results are immediate. Right after the surgery, you will experience an improvement with your eyesight. At the very least, you will get to literally “see” results a day or two after the operation.

Still, there is a downside to this type of medical procedure. Take a look at some of them and decide for yourself if undergoing the surgery is worth the risk:

1. Complications may arise.

Different patients respond differently to treatment. If there are certain health issued that your doctor is not aware of, the procedure may not have positive results.

2. There are certain jobs or profession which prohibit an employee undergoing LASIK eye surgery.

Be sure to check with your employer first if you think that this surgery might in any way inhibit you from doing your work.

3. The procedure is quite costly.

Over the years and because of its gaining popularity, the costs have gone down considerably.

However, it is still quite a hefty amount to squeeze out of your pocket if you are on a budget.

If you plan to undergo this type of surgery, ask your doctor about the
rates.

‘Should You Do It?’

If you are not the type of person to boldly take risks,LASIK eye surgery may not be right for you.

Before deciding to undergo the procedure, make sure that you know about the costs, health risks and take all the necessary precautions.

Also, talk with your doctor about what you should do before, during and after the surgery.

Ask them what you can expect to feel and the results that you will get right after the procedure.

The latest in eye surgery, LASIK (Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis) is used to correct your vision and reduce your dependence on devices, such as, contact lenses and glasses. It corrects refractive errors of the eyes, such as, Myopia or nearsightedness, where you have more difficulty seeing distant objects, Hyperopia or farsightedness, where you have more difficulty seeing near objects, and Astigmatism, where the image on the retina is distorted due to imperfections in the cornea.

Though the actual surgery is painless and quick, you need to know what to expect after LASIK eye surgery. Whatever you may have heard about going back to your routine schedule within 24 hours after LASIK eye surgery, it may not be the case always. You may have burning and/or itching sensation in your eyes. In some cases, there is a mild pain and you may be required to take pain killers. Your eye may water and you may have a blurry or hazy vision for a few days. Whatever you feel, do not rub your eyes.

Your eye may be sensitive to light; you may be seeing ghosts, haloes and starbursts. Normally these symptoms would disappear after a few days. If not, it is better to consult a doctor immediately. For your dry eyes, you may be required to take antibiotics, steroids and other medications. You need to use protective shields to keep anything from getting into your eyes.

After the surgery you will be able to put away your eyeglasses or contact lenses. Nevertheless, there are a number of things you should apply to speed up the recovery time:

The First Week

While showering, do not let water strike you directly on the face. Stop soap and shampoo from entering your eye. You may do light exercises but keep sweat out of your eyes. Regularly use the prescribed eye drops for infection, inflammation, and for lubricating your eyes. Avoid swimming, using whirlpools and hot tubs. Do not use lotions, creams and eye makeup.

The First Three Months

You may start strenuous exercises, but keep sweat away from your eyes. You can start swimming, but with eye protection. Unless otherwise advised by your doctor, you can start using lotions, creams and eye makeup.

Three to Six Months

Fluctuating vision is part of the recovery from LASIK eye surgery. It will take this much time for the vision to clear up.

You might need re-surgery to correct certain anomalies. If further correction is necessary, you need to wait until your eye measurements are consistent for two consecutive visits, at least three months apart, before re-operation.

There are 24.6 million LASIK surgeries performed worldwide and an estimated number of over one million LASIK procedures performed annually in the USA alone. With the prevalence and increasing popularity of LASIK to improve and correct vision, and with a high satisfaction rate for those who underwent the procedure, you may find yourself asking – am I a good candidate for it?

Good candidates for the LASIK procedure are people who are over 18 years of age and have stable prescription glasses or contact lenses for two years. Surgeons want to find out if you have stable vision since people aged 18 and younger have visions that are still developing. Another criteria would be having vision problems such as near-sightedness (myopia), far-sightedness (hyperopia), astigmatism or any combination of these with low or moderated degrees of refractive error. People who want to be free from using contact lenses and glasses, and have realistic expectations of surgery results are also good candidates.

Patients with diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren’s disease, HIV, AIDS, lupus, or other chronic diseases are not good candidates. The same is true for people taking certain medications such as steroids, retinoic acid since they may also impair wound healing and affect the outcome of the surgery.

This procedure is not for women who are pregnant or breast-feeding. Pregnant women have fluctuating hormones which causes increased retention of body fluids that may change the shape of your cornea and temporarily change your vision. After surgery, patients are often required to take antibiotics and other medications to promote healing and prevent infections. These medications when ingested by women who are either pregnant or breastfeeding may harm or pose risks to their babies.

Another criteria worth mentioning is to find out if you have sufficient corneal thickness and pupil size. The surgeon would need to cut out a flap of your cornea to sculpt it so having sufficient thickness is important since operating on thin corneas may cause blindness complications. Pupil size is also important in order to help the surgeon plan the corrective procedure better and also to take into consideration your night vision after LASIK surgery. Patients with dry eyes should not undergo this procedure since LASIK may worsen your condition.

Not everyone is eligible to undergo LASIK. Patients should consult their doctors first for potential risks and complications before undergoing any procedure. It also wise to learn more about the procedure itself, the outcomes, short term and long term complications, risks and benefits of this procedure. Lastly, get a list of reputable surgeons who have competency and adequate experience of performing this procedure.

LASIK wavefront, others may know as wavefront-guided LASIK, or custom LASIK surgery. With this kind of surgery, three-dimensional measurements are taken on the eye and how they use utilize the light that comes through. Generally, it is believed that this type of measurement allows the cornea to be reshaped properly.

When the best results are obtained, the irregularities are corrected with the way that images are processed. In most cases, the common types of defects within a person’s vision can be corrected with eyeglasses, as well as contacts, and the regular kinds of LASIK surgery. The normal cases of hyeropia, myopia, and astigmatism can be corrected through the traditional ways for correction. On the other hand, when the eye has some kind of irregularity, then the Wave front LASIK is the best way for spotting and treating that irregularity.

It’s believed that the type of correction that it enables with an individuals sight, is more profound than the standard kind of LASIK surgery. The way that this kind of surgery differs is how it takes in account the different eyes and vision ranges that an individual has, therefore making adjustments that are needed accordingly.

This kind of surgery seems to have a high success rate, due to the way that it takes into account the individual differences of people. The kind of eye correction that a person has is not something that a person can get through the use of glasses or contact lenses. In order to have LASIK wavefront, there are certain requirements that an individual must meet.

Often the success of the surgery has to do with the doctor that is performing the surgery. For this reason it is important that a person make sure that a doctor has a good record with their use of the laser system. Usually, it is not hard to find information pertaining to others experiences with the doctor.

Additional factors to consider, is how thick your cornea is, as well as if you have mild to moderate high amounts of myopia, hyperopia, or astigmatism. The best person to evaluate you is someone that has experience within this field. In any case, it is important to ensure that you are in fact a good candidate for Wavefront LASIK surgery.

Many of the individuals who have the LASIK wavefront, will usually have an increase in the amount they can see, as well as their sensitivity to contrast. In most cases, the success an individual experiences depends on their initial vision problems before the surgery. In any case, this kind of surgery does not have many complications that are involved with its usage.

LASIK wavefront works well l with the correction of a person’s ability to see better at nighttime as well as the individuals sensitivity experienced in accordance to contrast. Additionally, it can work well to correct any problems with shadows, glares, and halos. Although this type of treatment is more expensive, it works better, since it does a thorough analysis of the individual’s current difficulties that they experience when they are trying to see something.

Most people wear glasses or contact lenses due to a variety of reasons such as myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), or astigmatism. All of these conditions are caused when the shape of the cornea does not allow an image to be formed properly on the retina. They result in blurry vision and necessitate a dependence on artificial lenses to correct the vision.

Laser eye surgery is a technique that corrects this problem by reshaping the cornea, so that images are formed properly on the retina. This technique has a high rate of success and is increasingly being opted for by people with vision problems. However, it must be kept in mind, that laser eye surgery, is a surgical procedure, and carries with it the risks inherent in any surgical procedure.

Is laser eye surgery right for you? Well, there are a number of factors that you should take into account before opting for laser eye surgery. Some of these deciding factors include:

Your general health and medical history. If you have suffered or are suffering from eye diseases such as cataracts, glaucoma, ocular hypertension, blepharitis, iritis, or herpes, you should avoid laser eye surgery as it may further aggravate the infection. Those who have already undergone a previous eye surgery should also avoid repeating the procedure. People with dry eyes or exceptionally large pupils are also unsuitable. Diabetics and pregnant women should also avoid laser eye surgery as fluctuating hormone levels may render the surgery ineffective.

Your age. Laser eye surgery is generally not performed on people under 18 years of age. This is because the body is still in a developing state and the refractive ability of the cornea is still in a process of change. Generally speaking, you should only opt for laser eye surgery if you are at least 20 years of age, have worn glasses or contact lenses for at least 2 years, and the refractive power of your lens has not changed during this period.

Your chosen profession. Eye surgery is not allowed in many professions such as the air force, navy, or the military. Even if a surgical procedure is allowed, you must keep in mind that there is always a chance, no matter how slight, that laser eye surgery could actually degrade your vision further. You should only go ahead with the procedure if further degradation of your vision will not affect your job.

Laser eye surgery is a wonderful procedure. It can help you to do away with glasses or lenses for the rest of your life. However, before you opt for this procedure, do consult your ophthalmologist to find out if it is right for you.

Lasik is abbreviation of Laser Assisted in situ Keratomileusis, used to cure problems like astigmatism, hyperopia and myopia and is performed by ophthalmologists and is a type of a retractive laser eye surgery.

This lasik laser eye treatment has been extensively used by surgeons as this process makes the patient feel comparatively less pain and is also able to recover much faster than by following the normal procedure of surgery. This is used to cure problems of long and short eyesight so it can act as an alternative to wearing contact lenses or even glasses.

The method of Lasik laser eye treatment is carried out in several steps. These steps are:

- If the patient wish to have the laser operation done then that patient have to stop wearing hard contact lenses at least six weeks and in addition of multiple of six weeks for the number of years the person has worn the lens. Cornea of the patient also has to be examined before the operation.

- This lasik laser eye treatment operation is performed through giving the patient anesthesia drops in the eyes. During the operation the patient is awake. In the operation first the flap is created for the corneal tissue further to remodel the cornea under that flap. After the above steps the created flap is then positioned to proper place.

There are various types of problems that a person might have to face after the lasik laser eye treatment like a person’s eyes might become very sensitive to the bright light. Under such case a person might not be able to see anything where there is presence of bright light in the background.

A person might even develop problem of vision loss, which is further devastating as this problem cannot be solved, not even with another surgery or glasses. A person may even have a blur vision.