All About Laser Eye Surgery and LASIK - Risks and Benefits
Laser eye surgery first became available in the UK around ten years ago, and now over 100, 000 people have laser eye surgery each year. In the hands of experiencing surgeons after having the procedure and its risks explained to you is a great way to get laser eye surgery.
The most popular type of laser eye surgery is LASIK, because it causes the patient the least discomfort and both eyes can treated at the same time. LASIK can be used to correct short-sightedness, long-sightedness and astigmatism.
The surgery involves cutting a thin flap on the surface of the eye, and using lasers underneath the flap to reshape it. Patients remain conscious throughout the procedure and it takes about ten minutes per eye.
The patient’s eyes are anaesthetised with drops and held in place using a suction ring. An eyelid retractor is used to ensure the patient doesn’t blink. In cutting edge laser eye treatments the flap will be cut with another laser rather than a blade, which means the incision is more precise and will heal faster.
There are other new developments, such as Wavefront technology which creates a virtual 3-D map of a patient’s eye, to help make surgery more accurate and successful.
The best results are achieved for people with moderate short-sightedness. Short-sighted patients with prescriptions of up to -10 and long-sighted patients whose prescription is less than +6 can have laser eye surgery done.
In a very small number of cases patients can experience some side-effects. Most side-effects are relatively minor compared with the benefits of being able to see clearly. Serious complications are very rare, but can threaten your eyesight altogether. Some people also talk about their eyes slowly regressing over ten years to the same point they were lasered. The treatment is so new that we have no idea of what the effects might be after forty or fifty years.
So make your own mind up. There are plenty of people who have had laser eye surgery and got 20/20 vision with minimal complications. As laser eye surgery becomes more established the treatment improves along with its success and safety.
A recent report conducted by Which? Found that UK high street laser eye clinics were not giving good enough advice about laser eye surgery and the possible side-effects and complications. Make sure you read up on LASIK and know the procedure and its risks before you commit.
John McE writes articles on a number of subjects including optical treatments and laser eye surgery. For more about this see Focus Clinics.