Laser Eye Surgery

Helpful Laser Eye Surgery Tips

LASIK is actually an acronym that stands for laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis. OK, now that you know what it stands for (do you really?) here is what it is and what it does.

Why Choose Laser Eye Surgery?

Regardless of its price, laser eye surgery is a smart investment for anyone who’s spent their whole life grappling with switching contacts, improving their prescription, and bitterly waiting the two agonizing, headache-y weeks until their new frames arrive. Laser eye surgery is also an invaluable option for the vision impaired who are approaching old age; there’s nothing worse than waiting your entire life for retirement only to find that your vision is irreparably damaged. For those with macular degeneration, they live every day like the protagonist of the Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough At Last” episode: he finds he’s finally stumbled upon an alternate world where he can read all of his favorite books, only to crack his reading glasses. While diabetes complications (including glaucoma) are the leading cause of blindness overall, the leading cause of blindness for adults approaching old age (specifically those in their 60s) is macular degeneration. New techniques, like short pulse laser techniques out of the UK, can remove waste from the eye without damaging the eye with intense light—a preventative savior for the elderly who pricelessly value independent living.

A number of eyeball health task forces including the National Eye Institute and American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery cooperated with the FDA to produce an informative guide to the most beneficial use of a significant laser eye surgery investment—usually slightly less than cost of a new compact sedan at $5,000-$7,000 Laser eye surgery originally soared in popularity because it solved dilemmas that eyeglasses and contacts are ill-equipped to combat. Here are some tips they’ve assembled to help presbyopics, cataract patients and even the legally blind get the most out of laser eye surgery…

Switch to Glasses

Not permanently, of course. Become Clark Kent for a month before your lasik surgery and you’ll thank yourself later. If you already wore glasses prior to pursuing lasik eye surgery this rule of thumb obviously doesn’t apply to you. For any contact wearers, however, hard or soft, the lens can change the shape of your eye. It’s recommended that soft contact wearers switch to glasses two weeks prior to their laser eye surgery. The rule is particularly crucial for those with astigmatism (a natural misshaped cornea), who should switch to glasses 3 weeks before laser eye surgery and those who use hard lenses who should switch 4 weeks before.

Don’t Let Your Corneas Throw You a Curve

Aside from pre-existing conditions like astigmatism, inflamed eyelids and eyeballs due to an allergic reaction, some patients could experience keratoconus, a condition of a curved cornea that could impede their laser eye surgery by throwing it an unexpected curve.

Quench Your Eyeballs’ Thirst

I once had a cousin who had his tear duct ripped during a rowdy game of basketball. While his increased proclivity to crying was amusing for my siblings, his constant crying and subsequent inflamed eyeballs made him an ineligible candidate for laser eye surgery; a laser eye surgery candidate should maintain an average, temperate moist climate for their eyes. If not properly moistened post-surgery, a cornea(the incised area) could become wrinkled and reverse the effects of the expensive surgery.

Those with a scratched cornea, inflamed eyeballs due to allergies, or someone with dry eye syndrome, they should in the least attain eye-drops and additionally seek antibiotics/medication for their condition before undergoing laser eye surgery.

Post-Laser Eye Surgery—Don’t Let Hindsight Cloud Your Vision

Among the 5% of patients who aren’t wholly satisfied with their laser eye surgery, some of them are experiencing unforeseen complications—cloudy vision, “starbursts”(not a candy hallucination, but overreaction to light) and shadowy “ghost” images. These patients may just be reacting to their surgery with enlarged pupils and increased sensitivity to light which usually ceases after a few months. If not, the patient could need to undergo vitreoretinal eye surgery , caused when a tear in the retina releases liquid that builds up.

These tips should ideally prepare you for one of the biggest investments you’ll make in your lifetime. Laser eye surgery gets a bad rap for being a supposed “luxury” commodity—it’s far from it. Lasik can improve your site from 1/20 to 40/20 and, if you’re a suffering diabetic or elderly, prevent you from crippling vision impairment. To learn more about how laser eye surgery can change your life for good, call the number listed on this screen or click on our contact form for more today!