Archive for March, 2007

Finding the LASIK surgeon right for you should not be taken lightly. The procedures offered are probably not covered by your health insurance, so you are not limited to a particular doctor. LASIK is not an emergency procedure, so you have time to make an informed decision.

Don’t settle for the first LASIK doctor you come across. Compare costs, capability, experience, attitude, success rates and equipment. Each surgeon has different abilities. Check his or her track record. If they claim to have 10, 000 procedures under their belt, find out if that means successful procedures. Find out if that means 10,000 people or 10,000 eyes! If your doctor rushes you or makes you feel in any way that he or she is hiding something, go see another doctor.

Feel safe. Make sure that the laser your doctor uses is one that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the particular procedure that is right for your eyes. If you get a hinky feeling from your doctor, his or her office, the eye center staff, or anything to do with this, then STOP. Ask more questions. Be satisfied that you are being dealt with honestly. Beware of package deals, two-for-ones, and guarantees. LASIK is a surgical procedure. Each person is different and what works for one will not work for all. There are no guarantees in surgery.

Read the literature that is available on the LASIK procedure that your doctor recommends. Each manufacturer produces a patient handbook. If your doctor does not readily provide this literature, get a second opinion. You may not be a good candidate for this surgery.

There are parameters to consider when determining whether LASIK is right for you. Pupil size, thickness of the cornea, level of refractive error, age of the patient, curvature of the cornea, the patient’s ability to heal, medical history and other factors should be examined. There are so many other means of correcting vision, that you should not go into this process with the idea that LASIK is your only option. Be sure that your doctor tells you what the safe parameters are and where you fall in the range for each item on the checklist.

Check your physician’s reputation with the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and your state’s office of medical licensure. Ask other people who have had LASIK what their experiences were like and what they’ve heard about your chosen LASIK surgeon. This will affect you for the rest of your life, for good or ill. Be sure. You cannot always count on someone who is selling procedures to be completely honest with you.

Be very careful with your eyes. LASIK surgery should be taken seriously. It can be a powerfully good thing, but the long-term effects of this procedure are not known. When necessary for your job, there may be little choice. There are enough people who have had terrible experiences and poor results, that care must be taken when making this decision.

You may have heard of surgery for vision instead of glasses or contacts. In the United States, lasik is the primary surgery used to treat nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. In less than thirty minutes per eye, it reshapes the stroma, the middle portion of the cornea.

The Lasik Procedure
In order to access the stroma, the surgeon cuts a flap in the upper portion of the cornea, right above the pupil. Numbing drops are put into the eye, the cornea is marked to aid in replacing the flap, and then the eye area is cleaned.

A lid speculum holds the eye open. High pressure is applied to the eye with a suction ring that is briefly placed directly on the eye. Then the flap is cut. This is called a keratectomy, which may be done by either of two methods.

The time-tested way uses a microkeratome, a cutting instrument or blade. The newer method of cutting the flap is by “laser-only” or femtosecond lasik, sometimes known by the brand name “IntraLase.” After the suction ring is removed, both lasik methods are nearly identical.

The corneal flap is folded back, and the exposed tissue is allowed to dry. Then, the patient is asked to stare at a light for about sixty seconds to help keep the eye fixed and immobile. In less than one minute, the lasik computer pulses high-energy ultraviolet light removing the tissue that was previously determined to reshape the cornea most effectively and accurately.

The lasik laser makes clicking sounds, and there may be a smell of burning tissue. After very precise amounts of tissue are removed from the stroma, the surgeon lays the flap back into place. The eye is observed for a few minutes to make sure that proper bonding is taking place.

After the Surgery
Once the surgery is complete, a protective shield is placed over the eye, to prevent pressure and anything from bumping the eye. Since there are no stitches in lasik surgery, these precautions must be taken to ensure that the flap remains in place.

Some patients return to work the next day, but most doctors recommend that you wait a few days. Strenuous activity, and non-contact sports should be avoided for up to three days. Facial products and makeup are out for up to two weeks. The eyelashes may need to be scrubbed fairly often during this time to help prevent infection.

No contact sports are allowed for at least four weeks. Expect to leave off swimming, hot tubs, whirlpools and saunas for up to eight weeks.

Expected Outcomes from Lasik
Most lasik patients see huge improvements in their vision by the next day. Vision may continue to improve for three to six months post-operatively. While visual fluctuations may occur temporarily throughout the day, this tendency diminishes over time.

Lasik eye surgery is not for everyone. Most good candidates follow their surgeon’s pre and post-operative directives faithfully. They find their vision, and therefore their lifestyle, greatly enhanced by this laser procedure.