Archive for September, 2006

Are you are tired of wearing glasses or contact lenses? Are you tired of scratches on your eye glasses? Does the thought of sticking something in your eye every morning make you cringe? Do you lose your eyeglasses? Do you have to put a chain on your glasses to avoid loosing them? Do you have to “put your eyes in” to see anything? If the answer to one or more of these questions is yes, then maybe it is time you consider a new option that could reduce or completely eliminate the need for eye glasses or contact lenses. Lasik is a new technology that can surgically repair your eyes. For some it restores their eyes to 20/20 vision or better.
But to let someone shine a laser in their eye and potentially blind them for life is more than most people can handle. It is a scary thought, but educating yourself on lasik is the best way to over come those fears. If that does not help, your eye doctor may be able to get you in touch with a clinical psychologist that may assist you.
One way that you can overcome your fear of having lasik eye surgery is to watch it being done to someone else. Most doctors will allow you to watch it being done. They usually have it on video tape, and if they don’t most will allow you to sit in on a surgery at the patients consent. Once you see how simple, painless and quick the procedure is, most get over their fear. If you get to sit in on one of the surgeries, you can ask the patient what it felt like, how they are feeling now and any other question or concern that you have. Knowledge is Power. That old cliché never fails to be true when it comes to educating yourself about the pros and cons of lasik. The best way to overcome your fears is to learn as much about the surgery you can beforehand. The more you know, the better prepared you are for it to happen to you. Watching a surgery can also put your mind at ease about what happens. Your eyes are open the whole time, but you can’t see what’s going on around you because your head and eyes are kept in a stationary position. This can scare many people. Watching a surgery can alleviate many of those concerns.
If watching a surgery is not what it takes to get over your fear, you may want to consider counseling. If you want lasik bad enough, you will do it. Any good psychologist can cure people of most phobias. It is one of the things they went to school for. Some use methods such hypnosis and visual aids to help one overcome such fears. A good psychologist will have you ready for surgery in no time flat. If you can’t afford a good psychologist and watching a procedure does not help, something you may consider is meditation. Meditation can help calm your mind and body. It can help you lose weight, relax, get rid of headaches, and even get rid of phobias. Once you educate yourself on everything there is to learn about lasik, you should then do some research on meditation. “Meditation for Dummies” is a good book that will teach you what meditation is and how it can help you.
These are all good ways to get over your phobia. One of these could help you get over your phobia, but you may need a combination of several of these. Only you can decide what is going to get you over your phobia. If you want it bad enough, you will find a way over your phobia. If you want to see, then you will find a way. Once you overcome those fears and finally have the surgery, you will be glad you did. The benefits of not having to wear glasses or contacts will be well worth the work you put forth to get over that fear.
Please keep in mind that if you never get over your fear, you may be stuck wearing glasses forever. That thought should be the motivation you need to get over your fear.

Lasik surgery is a procedure which allows the cornea in your eye to bend so that the light is able to focus on your eye easier. The doctors first examine the cornea, the tissue around your eye, and other factors that can be created through the use of a laser. They will then determine if you are able to have Lasik surgery in order to correct your vision problems.
Through Lasik surgery, you can correct problems such as nearsightedness or farsightedness in your eyes. While most candidates for Lasik surgery have one eye done at one time in order to correct their vision, it is possible to have Lasik surgery done for both eyes at the same time. However, if you decide to have surgery in both eyes at once, there are several factors to consider.
Because of the process that doctors go through in order to make sure that you are a candidate for Lasik surgery, they will be able to determine how to proceed with the surgery in both eyes. The first thing which doctors will do is examine your eyes to make sure they are healthy. This includes a retina exam and glaucoma test. Through this, they will be able to see how your corneas are curved. They will also be able to determine the thickness of your cornea so they know if they need to be re-cut or re-shaped during the surgery. Many times, doctors begin the surgery by cutting out layers of tissue by your cornea, which helps with the surgery. Because they determine this during the initial exam, they will know exactly what to do in the surgery with both eyes, making it possible to do both eyes at the same time.
However, there may be complications if you do decide to have both eyes corrected at the same time. When you have surgery on only one eye during the surgery, you are able to see how that eye has responded to the surgery. If it has a bad reaction, it is easier to fix in the one eye, and allow healing. Sometimes, the sensitivity in the eyes will cause problems in reaction to the surgery, making it hard to have the surgery in the second eye.
At the same time, by only having surgery in one eye, it will be easier to see how the doctor should change the procedure for the other eye in order to ensure that there won’t be as many complications or risks with the healing process afterwards. While it will cause more time and more doctor visits to have one eye done at a time, it will also allow the vision to be changed more easily in the end.
In relation to this, the Lasik surgery may cause an under-correction or over-correction of the eye. If this happens in both eyes at once, then your vision will be worse than what it would have been if only one eye had gone through the surgery, and the second eye would have had a better correction. The problems that may occur during the surgery with the measurements that the doctors take is one thing to consider if you are deciding to have both eyes done at once.
Another problem which may occur if you decide to have Lasik surgery in both eyes at the same time is that both of your eyes may be blurred after the surgery and may remain that way until the first stage of healing is over. If you decide to have Lasik surgery in only one eye at a time, then you can depend on the other eye for vision while the one is healing. Along with this are the effects that take place after the surgery is over in relation to pain. Lasik surgery is known to cause pain and burning after it is finished. If you decide to do both eyes at once, the pain and burning may be worse than it would have been otherwise.
While Lasik surgery is possible to do in both eyes at once, it can often cause complications and problems. It is important that your doctor notifies you of the complications that may occur if you decide to have Lasik surgery in both eyes. If you decide to have Lasik surgery, it is best to consider the factors in relation to the outcomes when determining whether you should have the surgery done in one eye or both eyes at the same time.

Referral sources for lasik eye surgery procedures:
1 Internet
2 Magazines
3 Medical periodicals
4 Former lasik patients
The internet is the best place to find sources for lasik eye surgery procedures. Using a search engine such as http://www.google.com, you can find information on just about anything. Searching something as simple as “lasik” returns over four million websites. That’s correct: four million. You can narrow your search by getting a little more specific. For example searching for “lasik pricing” yields two hundred thousand results. You can use the internet to search for local eye doctors that do lasik in your area. A search for “lasik in Shreveport, Louisiana” yields fifty three thousand results. You can use just about any search engine. You may not find the site you need with your first try, but you will be lead in the right direction. Using the internet you can have all your questions answered about lasik, the procedure, the side effects, the pricing, and just about anything else you wanted to know, but was afraid to ask. You may even have some questions answered that you did not even think to ask. The internet is the most common referral source for lasik.
The second most common source for referrals is magazines. If you have ever had to go to the doctor or the dentist, you have seen tons of medical magazines in the waiting room. Most new innovations in medical science can be found by perusing these magazines. Doctors are in the business to make money, so it would make since that they would advertise. If it is a new innovation, you may even be able to read up on it in these magazines. The downside of using magazines to research is that there is no real organization or way to search them by topic. You have literally search through many magazines to find the one article you need that may or may not have all the information you need. The up side to magazines is that they are good about getting your attention and making you aware of certain innovations that you can later look up on the internet with a standard search engine.
Medical periodicals is another source that many over look. You can usually find out all the details of a procedure using medical periodicals. The down side is that these usually read like stereo instructions and they are rather boring. They are good to put you to sleep at night, and, like magazines, are good starting points. They can give you the lead you need to start an internet search.
The most overlooked resource you have is first hand knowledge from people who have had lasik. You can ask any eye doctor and they should be able to give you a reference list of patients that have agreed to talk to potential patients. Usually they will give you the best idea of what to expect. They will tell you what the internet and doctors leave out. They have gone through the operation. They know what it feels like, what the after effects are like, and if it is worth it. Now don’t go by just what one person says. Ask as many as you can. Ask anyone you know if they know someone who has had it done.
These four things are the best referrals there are on lasik. The internet, by far, has the most information at your fingertips, but keep the others in mind as well. They were around before the internet and will be around for years to come. The information they provide is very valuable and should not be over looked. If you use there sources, you will be very educated on what to expect when you go into a consultation with any eye doctor. That education will give you a leg up. You will be able to tell when a doctor is just trying to sell you something, or if he/she is really trying to help you. You are a person too, not just a paycheck. You know that, so make sure he/she does too. Once those boundaries are set, then you can feel more comfortable letting him/her operate on you. Knowledge is power, and in this circumstance, that old cliché holds true.