One kind of refractive surgery is LASIK. This type of surgery treats eyesight issues brought on by refractive defects using a laser. When the lens of your eye does not correctly refract (bend) light, you suffer from a refractive error.
Light beams must pass between your cornea and lens in order to allow you to see clearly. The light reaches the retina after being refracted by the cornea and lens. Light is converted by the retina into impulses that are sent to the brain to form pictures.
Your cornea or lens’s shape prevents light from bending correctly when you have refractive problems. Your eyesight becomes hazy when light is not properly focused on the retina.
Who Makes a Good LASIK Surgery Candidate?
In order to have LASIK procedure, you must fulfill certain prerequisites. Here are a few of them:
- You should be at least eighteen years old, preferably older than twenty-one, as this is when vision changes are most likely to have halted.
- Over the past year, there shouldn’t have been any significant changes to your eye prescription.
- You must have a refractive defect that LASIK can correct.
- You must have healthy, sufficiently thick corneas and generally good eye health.
Regarding what LASIK may and cannot accomplish for you, you must have reasonable expectations. Not everyone is a good candidate for LASIK.
They consist of those who have:
- A fluctuating (unstable) refractive error
- severe cases of astigmatism, hyperopia, or myopia
- excessively thin corneal scarring or keratoconus (cone-shaped cornea) due to extreme dry eye
- advanced glaucoma cataract that impairs vision
- a past history of specific eye infections
- poorly managed diabetes
- Additionally, ladies who are nursing or pregnant shouldn’t have LASIK. This is because pregnancy might cause alterations in eyesight.
You can discuss further issues that can prevent you from getting LASIK with your ophthalmologist. Your ophthalmologist for laser eye surgery Atlanta will assess your eyes to see if you qualify for LASIK.
This is what’s going to happen:
- Your eyes’ general condition will be examined.
- They’ll take measurements of your cornea.
- They’ll measure your refractive error.
- Your ophthalmologist may occasionally measure the quantity and quality of tears your eyes produce. This will determine whether you have dry eyes, and, if yes, how bad is it?
What to anticipate from LASIK
Prior to laser eye surgery
Your ophthalmologist and you will talk about your lifestyle-based visual needs. For instance, you might want clear distance vision following surgery if you play sports.
You should also talk to your ophthalmologist about what you hope to get out of LASIK. The possibility of disappointment exists for those who have LASIK in order to attain flawless vision without the need for glasses or contacts.
People may do the majority of their daily chores without the need for corrective lenses (https://nyulangone.org/conditions/refractive-error/treatments/corrective-lenses-for-refractive-error) thanks to laser eye surgery. However, some tasks, including reading or nighttime driving, may need the use of glasses.
To determine whether you qualify for LASIK, your ophthalmologist will do a comprehensive examination of your eyes.
This is what they’ll do:
- Check your eyesight. To ensure that your vision hasn’t altered, this is necessary. Additionally, it indicates your refractive defect and if LASIK is a viable option for vision correction.
- Look for further eye issues. You will be checked for eye issues by your ophthalmologist. This is because your procedure may be impacted by other issues, or LASIK may exacerbate existing issues. For instance, following LASIK, your dry eyes can get worse.
- Your cornea’s surface should be measured and mapped. In addition to taking exact measurements of the cornea’s surface, your ophthalmologist will assess the cornea’s thickness. The computers laser used in the procedure is programmed by your eye surgeon using these measurements.
While having LASIK
Either your ophthalmologist’s office or an outpatient surgical center does laser eye surgery. A cornea is reshaped by an eye surgeon using a laser. What to anticipate is as follows:
- Eye drops will be used to numb your eye.
- An eyelid holder will be applied to your eye by your eye surgeon to prevent blinking. In order to prevent your eye from shifting, they will additionally apply a suction ring. Your eyelid will feel as though a finger is forcefully pressing on it. Your eyesight will get blurry or dark at this stage.
- A paper-thin flap is made in the corneal tissue by your ophthalmologist using either a laser or a device known as a microkeratome. The flap is then raised and folded back.
- You’ll be required to look at a target light to prevent your eyes from moving. After that, the ophthalmologist uses a laser to reshape your cornea. Your eye’s measurements have been encoded into the laser, a unique device.
- You will hear the click of the laser as your ophthalmologist uses it. Your eye surgeon smoothens the margins and folds the flap back into place after reshaping the cornea. When the flap heals in place, it will connect itself in two to three minutes.
Following LASIK
The ophthalmologist could ask you to wear a see-through shield while you sleep for a few days, or they might put one over your eye. This will help keep your eye safe as it recovers.
You ought to arrange to get home and take it easy after the procedure, take a nap or simply unwind.
Your eyes can feel like they’re burning or itchy for a few hours. Special eye drops will be administered to you in order to lessen dryness and promote eye healing.
After LASIK, vision
Ninety percent of LASIK patients get 20/20 to 20/40 vision without the need for glasses and contact lenses.
It is crucial to understand that presbyopia cannot be corrected by LASIK. This is the typical age-related loss of eyesight at close-up. Nearly everyone with good distance vision will require reading glasses beyond the age of 40, whether or not they had refractive surgery.
Some patients obtain monovision with LASIK to help with presbyopia. This indicates a minor nearsightedness in one eye and is modified to accommodate distant vision.
In order to employ the nearsighted eye for close tasks and the other eye for distant items, the brain adapts. Not everyone is a good fit for monovision. Monovision using contact lenses is likely the first option to test whether you can adjust to this correction.