Archive for December, 2006

OK. You have done all your homework. You have educated yourself on lasik and other vision correction surgeries. You have interviewed and chosen the right doctor to do your surgery. You went without your contact lenses for the required six weeks. You took a leap of faith and had the surgery. Now what? What happens next? Recuperation is the next step.
Although everyone is different, most people who have had a successful lasik procedure have a quick and relatively painless recovery. Most go to sleep and wake up the next morning seeing the world through new eyes. Be sure to follow your doctor’s post surgery instructions. This could mean the difference between a successful recovery and a recovery full of drastic complications.
Immediately after surgery most doctors will require you to rest in the office for a while and then send you home to sleep for several hours. This is why it is a good idea to have someone go with you the day of surgery. Sometimes the doctor will cover your eyes to protect them from the sun and other things that will cause problems with healing. Do not take these patches off until your doctor tells you too. If he says to keep them on until the next day, follow his instructions. This could mean the difference between a successful recovery and a recovery full of drastic complications.
Most people experience several hours of discomfort after surgery. A mild pain reliever such as acetaminophen or naproxen sodium is good at relieving the pain and discomfort. You never want to take aspirin after surgery unless your doctor says otherwise. Aspirin thins the blood and can cause bleeding from your wound. There are lots of blood vessels in the eye that will be affected if aspirin is taken. Your eyes will also feel itchy and you may have the impulse to scratch or rub your eyes. DON’T! There is a small chance that you could dislodge the corneal flap made by the doctor during surgery. This can cause blindness. So DO NOT RUB OR SCRATCH YOUR EYES! You may also notice sensitivity to light, but that goes away after a couple days.
While many people return to work the next day, it is best if you schedule a few days off of work to recover from surgery. You don’t want to over exert yourself. You need to avoid exercising and any strenuous activities. If you have a job that requires you to lift anything heavy or where you do a lot of moving around or if you work in a place with lots of dust, it is highly recommended that you take a couple days off to allow your eyes to heal.
Contact sports should also be avoided for several weeks. This is to ensure that nothing gets in the eye that can potentially damage the eye while healing. You also want to avoid doing anything that can cause the eye to be bumped or hit. This can undo everything that the surgery fixed.
During the first six months be prepared to visit your doctor on a regular basis for checkups to make sure you are healing fine. During the first six months your vision will fluctuate before finally stabilizing. Some dry eye may occur and your doctor can give you eye drops to counteract the dry eye. This is because your tear ducts may not be able to compensate for the new shape of your eye, so it does not produce enough moisture to keep the eye comfortable. You should contact your doctor at the first sign of irritation or blurred vision. Timing is important when dealing with the negative side effects of lasik. The best advice is to follow everything your doctor says. If you can make it through the first six months with no problems, chances are your eyes will do fine from then on.
Lasik is permanent, but your eyes naturally change over time. You may need to get glasses or reading glasses again in the future. There is no surgery to date that can fix your eyes forever. Until then lasik is the way to go. It is the wave of the future…for now.

Laser assisted in-situ keratomileusis, or Lasik, is a procedure that has assisted people around the world reduce their need to wear glasses or contact lenses. But just how effective is Lasik surgery?
Putting It into Perspective
The CRSQA, which is a surgeon certification organization, has placed strict requirements on its members. One of these requirements is that all members must prove that at least 90% of their patients achieve at least 20/40 uncorrected vision after the procedure. In addition, the organization requires its members show that at least 50% of its members achieve 20/20 vision.
Furthermore, the surgeon will set a corrected vision goal for the patient prior to surgery. To maintain membership in the CRSQA, the surgeon must be within one diopter of this target with 85% of his or her patients, and half of their patients must be within a half diopter.
Most surgeons find these guidelines to be reasonable. What does this mean for you? Basically, the odds are that you have at least a 50% chance of having perfect vision after your surgery if your surgeon belongs to this organization, because he has proven this success rate. In addition, you theoretically have an 85% chance of meeting the vision goal your surgeon establishes with you prior to the surgery.
Even surgeons who are not members of CRSQA are likely to be able to live up to these same standards, as most professionals consider these figures to be pretty simple to attain, or surpass. But your best bet would be to seek out a CRSQA member, just for your own security and benefit.
Getting Results
For most people, their vision improves immediately after the Lasik surgery is completed. For others, their vision improves gradually over the days or weeks following the procedure. Most people achieve 20/20 vision or better from Lasik, but others only achieve 20/40 or worse. 20/40, however, is still pretty good vision. In fact, most states consider this to be good enough for driving.
For some patients, it will still be necessary to wear glasses or contact lenses after completing Lasik surgery. The prescription, however, will be much lower than it was before the surgery. If problems result in the surgical procedure, it is often best to have your Lasik surgeon take care of the problem. The doctor who did the Lasik procedure will know best what you need to have done to correct any problems. If you lost faith in your doctor, then it may be best to seek out a new Lasik provider. Be sure to take all of your files and be ready to give all details pertaining to your Lasik treatment.
Benefits of Lasik
Lasik does have potential complications and risks, but the outstanding benefits of Lasik, for most people, far outweigh the potential risk. For example, many people simply do not like the feeling of dependence up on their glasses or contact lenses. This dependence is even frightening at times, such as in the case of an emergency situation. Many people with poor vision even worry about how they could possibly function without their glasses or contact lenses because their vision is so poor. Lasik surgery eliminates this concern. Even if the vision is not corrected to 20/20, the vision will almost certainly be better than it was prior to the surgery. Ultimately, this makes the patient less dependent on glasses on contact lenses in order to function.
In addition, contact lenses and glasses are simply uncomfortable for many people with poor vision. Glasses can be heavy and dig into the bridge of a person’s nose. They can fall off easily, or cause headaches by clinging too tightly to the person’s head. Often people do not like searching for their glasses in the night or they misplace them. Many people feel that getting rid of their glasses or bifocals will be a blessing. Many people cannot wear contacts because they can’t bear the feeling of having an object in their eye. For yet others, contact lenses cause dry eye, which can be very uncomfortable. For these people, Lasik provides an attractive alternative to contact lenses and glasses. Furthermore, Lasik corrected vision is often better than the vision improvement gained through glasses or contact lenses.

Lasik surgeons at teaching hospitals have a leg up on the competition. They have several things that give them that leg up.
1. Experience
2. Knowledge
3. Reputation
When you choose a doctor to shine a laser that could potentially blind you for life, you want someone you know you can trust. Would you rather a doctor fresh out of school, or someone that has experience? A teacher would have the most experience, and you know that if he/she teaches lasik surgery, he/she should be good at it. Also most professors that teach at teaching hospitals have been in their profession for several years and have lots of surgeries under their belt. The more surgeries that a surgeon has done, the more experience they get. If you are going to trust someone with your precious vision, you want someone with lots of experience. That would be the most logical thought. You would think that one who teaches must be good and have lots of experience to teach it to others. Yes the price may be higher, but you should be able to trust this experienced person with your precious eyes.
The second reason that lasik surgeons at teaching hospitals have a leg up on the competition is that are up to date on the latest technology, technological breakthroughs, and newest procedures. This means he/she will likely not be using surgery techniques that are older than you. Newer techniques usually have higher success rates and faster healing times. They can also fix more things now than they could ten years ago. Keeping up on the latest trends means keeping the most options open for the patient. When you go to a doctor and they only offer one course of action to correct your vision, its time to move on to someone else. A doctor up to date on the latest trends in surgery, lasik, machines, computers, etc. should be able to offer more options to the patient. A variety of options is a good sign that you are at a competent doctor. He/she should be able to answer any of your questions. If you did your homework before going in, he/she should be answer questions about the newest techniques that you read about. He/she should be able to give you a list of options and after an exam, should be able to offer the best options to correct your sight.
Another thing that gives lasik surgeons at teaching hospitals a leg up on the competition is reputation. Professors have a track record that is usually public that can be checked. Usually if a surgeon teaches at a school, that usually, but not always, means they are a very good surgeon. Before choosing the right doctor, you should really do your homework. Try to find out how many surgeries he/she has done. See if you can talk to some of their previous patients. Ask as many questions as you can. If they are a good doctor, they will do everything in their power to make you feel at ease about lasik.
Lasik surgeons at teaching hospitals do have a leg up on the competition, but keep in mind they are not the only surgeons out there. If you do your homework, you will easily find the right doctor for you. It is important that you find a doctor you trust. After all you will trust him/her with your sight. If you don’t feel comfortable with a particular doctor, then find another. Don’t settle on a doctor because he/she is the cheapest you can find. Money should not be the deciding factor. You can always make more money, but you only have one set of eyes. Don’t run the chance of loosing them because of pricing. If you are going to invest money in something like this, make sure the money is well spent and go with someone with good experience, knowledge, and a good reputation. If your doctor meets your expectations, then there is a good chance the surgery will meet your expectations as well, assuming you have a reasonable expectation. Don’t be afraid of asking too many questions. This may be a once in a lifetime surgery; at least you hope it is. If you choose the right doctor, it should be.