Are you ready for LASIK? Are you tired of wearing glasses or contact lenses? Would you like to be able to buy a pair of sunglasses that don’t need a prescription? Do you want to stop worrying about eye drops for your contacts? Whatever the reason, if you wear glasses or contact lenses, you may want to consider LASIK laser eye surgery and the benefits it can provide.

Successful Results of Laser Eye Surgery

Since the approval of the LASIK procedure for corrective eye surgery, many people have had laser eye surgery and are happy with the results. Their long distance vision has been corrected and they have been able to end or reduce their dependence on glasses and contacts. Successful outcomes are always desired and often obtained with LASIK. It is become a routine procedure for many eye surgeons, but it is important to remember that it is still a medical operation.

There are several factors which affect the overall outcome of laser eye surgery:

  • One of the most important factors in determining a positive outcome is whether or not an individual is a good candidate for the LASIK procedure.
  • The results may also be affected by the technology and whether the individual undergoes conventional LASIK, custom Wavefront LASIK, or Intralase.
  • It is also important to have realistic expectations about the limits of laser eye surgery and to know what aspects of vision is corrected with the procedure.
  • And as with all medical surgery, surgeon experience matters!

Are you a good candidate for LASIK surgery?

Anyone interested in LASIK surgery should make an appointment with a laser eye surgeon for a consultation and eye exam. While many questions about what to expect can be answered in articles and web pages, it will take an exam by the doctor to actually determine if you are a good candidate for LASIK or not. While there are general guidelines regarding who is a good laser eye surgery candidate, only a thorough eye exam will reveal the unique characteristics of your eyes. The eye exam not only determines a vision prescription, but it allows the doctor to measure the surface of the eye and thickness of the corneal layer, check for dry eyes, and notice any other irregularities of your eyes that may affect treatment.

What Age for LASIK?

It is not so much what age a person is, but whether or not a persons eyes have stabilized. Usually a physician will not recommend laser eye surgery for anyone under 18 years of age, because the eyes continue to change during a persons growth. Some physicians even prefer to wait until a person is at least 21 years of age before they consider them for LASIK surgery. Unlike the ability to change glasses or contacts with a vision change and new prescription, laser eye surgery cannot be changed or done over and over again. An exam and consultation with the doctor will help determine if your eyes have stabilized or if you should wait until you’re older before laser eye surgery if performed.

While most children are too young to undergo LASIK for traditional treatment, there have been instances of using laser eye surgery to correct other eye conditions in young patients. Because of the permanent results and unknown data of long-term safety, however, physicians have been cautious about performing laser eye surgery on children and teens.

New LASIK Technology Improves Results

Your eyes are as unique as your fingerprints, and the best results are achieved when treatment is based on your individual eyes. Custom Wavefront technology is treatment that corrects the shape of your eye based on a personal mapping and measurement of the surface of your eye. The surface of many patients eyes is very irregular in shape and the Wavefront technology allows the amount of laser correction to be personalized to an individual’s own eyes. For many people, the customized approach of the Wavefront procedure has the potential of a better outcome than they could expect to achieve with conventional LASIK.

Other advances have been made in the method used to cut the corneal flap. With traditional LASIK, the surgeon cuts the flap with a blade called a microkeratome. The new technology, known as Intralase, uses a machine guided laser to cut the flap into the cornea. While some patients prefer their eyes to be in the control of an experienced surgeon, other patients feel more confident in a bladeless cut controlled by a computer.

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LASIK EYE SURGERY – ALL ABOUT LASIK AND LASER EYE SURGERY