We’ve all seen or at least heard of cosmetic makeover shows and witnessed the life-changing effects treatments can have on a patient’s life. With the development of technology and new minimally invasive procedures, cosmetic surgeries have become more advanced.

Laser eye procedures are one of the most frequently executed procedures on these makeover shows as they are quick, heal quickly and make a major difference to a person’s appearance. If you’ve been inspired by makeover shows and are considering a laser eye treatment, you will be glad to know that there are revolutionary techniques that can genuinely rid you of the need for any corrective eyewear. Imagine the bliss! No more glasses or fiddling with contact lenses, no more paying for visits to the optometrists or spending on contact lens solutions and broken frames!

The Advancement of Laser Eye Treatment

Many people are under still unaware that the effects of presbyopia (ageing eyes) can be so successfully corrected with laser eye treatment. This form of eye surgery is also a very useful option, especially for those who suffer from astigmatism. Other eye related problems including short-sightedness (myopia) and long-sightedness (hyperopia) can also be corrected through this type of ocular surgery.

This form of cosmetic surgery differs from mainstream aesthetic cosmetic surgery – the tummy tucks, the breast augmentations and the nose jobs – which have a vast impact on how the world sees you.
On the contrary, laser eye treatment has a very profound impact on the way you see the world. It is a wonderful gift to give yourself, one that will bring you joy during your every waking moment. Having freedom from corrective eyewear can be an incredibly liberating feeling and often, patients experience a heightened sense of self-esteem and confidence.

Are You a Suitable Candidate for Laser Eye Surgery?

If you suffer from short-sightedness, your eyeball is slightly longer and rounder than it should be. This means the light converges just in front of the retina, creating a blurred image at distance. In the past, this condition has been treated with glasses or contact lenses; however, it is also an ideal condition for laser eye treatment. By slightly reshaping the front of the cornea, the light is refocused precisely on the retina, eliminating short-sightedness.

In the case of people who suffer from long-sightedness, the eyeball is shorter and flatter than it needs to be, resulting in a blurred due to the light focusing on a point just behind the retina. Long-sightedness can affect both distance and near vision, but with laser eye treatment, this condition can too be eradicated, along with the need for glasses.

An astigmatic cornea is shaped more like a rugby ball than the normal sphere. People who suffer from astigmatism experience symptoms such as blurred small print, difficulty reading, inability to see both near and far without squinting, constant headaches and fatigue. Although it involves a slightly more complicated procedure than those associated with long and short sightedness, this condition can also be permanently treated with laser surgery.

Lastly, older candidates that suffer from presbyopia (ageing eye) will be glad to know that the effects of this condition can be countered with laser eye treatment. This allows most patients to reduce their dependency on reading glasses for many years.

The Laser Eye Treatment Process

The thought of laser eye treatment can seem daunting to those who don’t know much about it. That said, it is in fact a remarkably safe and potentially life altering procedure.

Just as you would conduct research on the plastic surgeon you’d want to operate on your body, a great deal of research should go into considering the right laser surgeon to operate on your delicate eyes. Once you’ve found a reputable surgeon who has deemed you a suitable laser eye candidate, you should establish a relationship of trust from the very first screening.

The procedure itself is minimally invasive – you will usually be given a topical anaesthetic so the surgery itself is virtually pain-free, you may experience slight discomfort, but that’s about it. Pre-laser eye treatment preparation for surgery on the day usually takes between 30 minutes to 1 hour. However, the operation itself takes only minutes, and the excimer laser used during the procedure is only active for mere seconds.

The WOW Effect

Laser eye treatment is one of the greatest alternatives to conventional corrective vision techniques. Within a considerably short amount of time you will be able to experience sharper vision, without the help of glasses and contacts. Headaches caused by eye strain will be eradicated and you will be left with a new perspective of the world.

Stop hiding behind glasses and consider undergoing a quick and transformative procedure – not an extreme makeover, but definitely transformative.

Contact lenses are a great alternative to prescription eyeglasses for many people. They are small, curved lenses that fit right over your eye and provide vision correction for common vision problems such as astigmatism, myopia, presbyopia and more. One of the greatest benefits of contact lenses over eyeglasses is that it frees one from having to wear bulky eyeglass frames on their face. Many active people such as those who spend much time outdoors or participate in sports appreciate the freedom from frames very much.

While contact lenses can turn out to be much more comfortable in the long run than prescription eyeglasses, there is a period of adjustment in the beginning. Before you are used to your contact lenses and are familiar with how they feel, you may question whether your contacts fit properly or if they are in properly. This guide will help you determine how to evaluate if your contact lenses fit as they should and will also provide some general tips on contact lens insertion.

At the Eye Doctor’s Office

When your eye care professional diagnoses you with a vision problem that requires correction, you will discuss eyeglasses versus contact lenses and you may decide you prefer to try contact lenses. Your eye doctor will go over the several types of contact lenses available and may ask you several questions about your lifestyle in order to help determine which type of contact lenses will be best for you. Next, your optician will measure the surface of your eye in order to determine its curvature. He or she will determine key measurements with an instrument called a keratometer. Because everyone’s eyes have different shapes, sizes and levels of curvature, your eye doctor may use a computer to further measure certain aspects of the surface of your eyes. This may take several minutes, but try to be patient and helpful as it is crucial to have proper measurements if your contact lenses are to fit correctly.

After all measurements are taken, your eye doctor will have a good idea of exactly which size and curve your contact lenses should be. He or she will hopefully have a pair of contact lenses to fit your size and prescription right in their office so that they can help you insert them for the time and go over the fit with you. Another good reason for trying on your first pair of contact lenses at the optician’s office is that they can use a biomicroscope to help judge the fit of the lenses. It will generally take 10 to 15 minutes for the contact lens to settle into your eye, but after that, the doctor will look for any signs indicating that the lens is not a perfect fit. Some of the things he or she will look for are:

- Lenses that are too flat or too steep for your eyes can cause damage to your cornea and should be carefully avoided. These will generally cause great discomfort, so you will definitely know something is wrong if this is the case.
- Shifting of the contact lens off your eye and onto the whites of your eyes. Generally this would indicate that you might need a slightly different size.

Putting in Your Contact Lenses

To wear your contacts correctly and ensure the proper fit, follow these tips
- Always wash and dry your hands first
- Place the lens on the tip of your index finger, ensuring it’s rightside-up
- Hold your upper eye lid open with your other hand
- Gently place the lens on your eye as you stare straight into a mirror
- Release your eyelids and blink gently

Accommodation is a function of the eye which has long been overlooked in eye surgery because we just have not had the technology to do anything about it. The term accommodation refers to the ability of the eye to change focus from things that are very far away, like when we are driving, to things that are very close up and small, like reading or threading a needle.

If you have used a camera before, you have probably been aware of hearing the auto focus feature or noticed the lens move as the camera adjusts to the distance of the main objects in your picture. If it did not do so, the picture would appear blurred. Your eye has the same auto focus feature which allows us to keep the main objects in sharp focus regardless of their distance.

However, as we age, the lens in our eye begins to harden and loses this auto focus capability. Eventually, everybody begins to wear reading glasses or bifocals because of this aging effect called presbyopia. Over the years, people have tried to figure out how to eliminate presbyopia surgically, but there is no perfect way to do so.

Only recently have new developments in intraocular implants given us the ability to truly mimic accommodation as it occurs in the youthful eye. Most notably, the crystalens intraocular implant has been used very successfully in cataract surgery in elderly people. This surgery using the crystalens not only improves the patients distance vision by removing the cloudy lens (cataract) but it also gives improved near/reading vision.

The crystalens is a premium lens implant that has the ability to move in a certain way after it is placed inside the eye which is similar to the auto focus of a camera. With careful preoperative measurement,
calculation, and planning, this surgery can improve distance vision while reducing the need for reading glasses or bifocals.

When we do Lasik surgery, however, we do not have the ability to implant a new lens inside of the eye. Lasik surgery is done on the cornea which is the outer surface or clear dome shaped structure at the front of your eye. In this case, your normal lens remains intact and if you have reached the age where your lens has stiffened, it will remain so.

I often have patients that want some flexibility in terms of still being able to read after Lasik surgery and we do what we can to maximize their reading without significantly compromising their Lasik outcome for distance vision. Many surgeons do a monovision correction on their Lasik patients. Monovision is the practice of leaving the non-dominant eye nearsighted while fully correcting the dominant eye for distance. The concept goes as far back as the monocle, the one-eyed lenses seen worn in the 19th and early 20th century especially in Germany.

Often, in my opinion, surgeons will overdo the monovision effect and leave the patient too nearsighted. Although it gives very good reading vision, the large difference between the two eyes often creates problems with depth perception or dizziness. Also the compromise in distance vision becomes very noticeable to the patient and the brain is not adequately able to fuse or coordinate the different images from the two eyes.

I have had a much higher degree of success using a mini-monovision technique where I leave only a small amount of residual nearsightedness in the non-dominant eye. With this technique, I target good intermediate distance vision rather than close reading/threading-a-needle vision. The residual correction is probably only -1/2 to -1 diopters at most for these patients. This allows much better distance vision and good intermediate vision and some close reading ability. In general, in the modern world, most of our close work is done at the computer distance.

Mini-monovision accomplishes this goal and reduces confusion between the two eyes or loss of depth perception. Ultimately, my goal is to maximize the patients distance vision while giving them the ability to work on a computer, see their cell phone or watch, and read a menu. More extensive small print reading like sitting down to read the newspaper or a novel would probably require reading glasses. For most people, this set-up eliminates the use of glasses for over 90 percent of their day.

Surgical options for correction of accommodation have come a long way in recent times and continue to develop. If you have questions about accommodating intraocular lenses for cataract surgery, or about options when considering Lasik surgery, discuss them with your surgeon (not just a technician) prior to proceeding.

Cataract is the clouding of the lens of the eyes. It affects vision. A thin lining of cloudy natural lens is removed from the eye because it blocks the passage of light. This is how a cataract surgery is done. Cataract surgery is a harmless procedure. Every year, there are more than 1.6 Americans who undergo this treatment to repair their vision. More than half of the American population have cataract or may have been through a cataract surgery by the age of 80. Some people believe that when one eye has cataract, the other eye will definitely be next. This is a myth. Cataract doesn’t spread. It can occur in either or both eyes though.

Before a cataract surgery, a patient will go through an eye examination to determine the correct power of the intraocular lens that the eye needs. It is important for the patient to mention if he is presently under some medication. The doctor will advise whether or not to continue the said medications. There are really some medications which cause problems during a cataract surgery. An example of this medicine is Flomax, which is taken by men with enlarged prostates. The patient is then given an option on what to choose over single vision intraocular lens or presbyopia-correcting intraocular lens. The patient’s choice is usually dependent on some factors such as his lifestyle and ability to pay the total cost.

On the day of the surgery itself, there is a list of things to do such skipping breakfast and avoiding intake of liquids. An eye drop to dilate pupils and sedative are given prior to the actual procedure. Topical anesthesia is also given in order for the patient not to feel the pain. After the areas around the eyes were completely cleansed and after a sterile covering is put into place, at least a small cut is done into the eye to enable the surgeon to remove the cloudy lens. There are two methods to remove the cloudy lens. One is through sonically breaking up the cataract then extracted out of the eye. The other one is through mechanically breaking up the cataract into small pieces then removed from the eye through a small incision. After this, a plastic or silicon intraocular lens will replace the natural lens that was taken off the eye.

After the operation, a protective shield is placed on the eye. Then the patient is usually sent home after few minutes in the recovery room. Surgeons advise patients to apply eye drops for a number of times in a day. This goes on for few weeks depending on the surgeon’s advice. Just like any other medical procedure, there are dos and don’ts patients are given to ensure effectiveness of the operation.

The price of a cataract surgery is around $3,000, exclusive of health insurance. Fortunately, HMOs, Medicare and other health insurances cover this specific surgery. It is indeed pricey however, the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery reports 98% of the patients believe it is highly recommended since it simply worked for them.

Ophthalmology has realized the betterment of its field as it was honed and the knowledge over this field was improved over the constraints and development that it has undergone in refractive cataract surgery. It is said that with the current innovation and the latest generation of ophthalmology, it had reached to the point where “cataract surgery is refractive surgery”. This means that from the previous cases of letting the patients wear glasses on regular basis after cataract surgery, now, there are premium lenses already which will not refuse the right of the patients to have the opportunity of achieving good uncorrected distance and near vision exist evidently.

Thus, from then on, what the personnel or enthusiast were lacking was the necessary time to deal with those patients and insufficiency in skill sets of the surgeon and ophthalmologists who experienced significant rational instability and inconsistency in outcomes. However, those were given solution and now, technology has paved the way to greater innovation in achieving visual acuity which complements with emmetropia.

At the end of any surgical operations, they have set a standard goal of correcting various problems regarding the prevalent eye irregularities such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. It had been a greater help because it is not possible to reduce the magnitude of higher-order optical distortion such as spherical aberration. Also, intervention to presbyopia introduces the newly developed intra ocular lenses which can correct the said condition.

In this way, refractive surgery is divided into two basic types of corrective surgery. The first one is by changing the curvature of the cornea and the second type is by changing the internal optics of the eye by either replacing the natural lens of the eye or by using an intra ocular lens and attaching it to the natural lens. Through radial keratomy, incisions are made to various part of the cornea to correct nearsightedness and astigmatism. In the outer part of the cornea, it is incised to flatten the cornea in order to correct a mild to moderate degree of nearsightedness. With astigmatic keratomy, circumferential incision is made in the outer part of the cornea.

There are other options in refractive surgery which includes the following: Photorefractive Keratomy (PRK), Laser in-situ epithelial keratomileusis (LASEK), Laser in-situ keratomileusis (LASIK), Refractive replacement, and Phakic intraocular lens implantation. As with any type of surgery, we must be open that compilations can occur. The patient can experience complications such as flaring ones eye with lights at night, this may occur most of the time to those young patients who have large pupils; under correction or over correct is probable and may need for a second “enhancement” procedure; glasses may be required even after this surgery, and rarely corneal abnormality may need to use contact lenses; and in LASIK surgery, complications in the cutting of the corneal flap can lead to corneal irregularity.