LASIK Surgery

LASIK surgery is a very common procedure for vision correction. No more glasses or contacts with this surgery. It is an outpatient surgery and the surgery itself only takes minutes. Over one million LASIK surgery procedures are done annually. It may seem risk free with so many people getting their eyes done, but there actually are some side effects that can occur. Thankfully the dry eyes go away quickly.

LASIK stands for Laser Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis, which in plain language means in the body eye reshaping with a laser. This surgery can remove the need for glasses or contacts. In some people they may still need to wear contacts, if their vision was very bad before surgery. LASIK is getting to be more popular as time goes on. People are less afraid especially since it seems everyone knows someone that had the surgery done.

Not everyone is qualified for the surgery though. This eye correction surgery works best on those with myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism. Those that are near or over the age of 40 may have their vision affected by conditions that LASIK surgery cannot treat. People with certain medical conditions or on certain medications cannot undergo LASIK due to complications. Chronic dry eyes is one problem that will prevent you from having this vision correcting surgery. Being pregnant or nursing also invalidates you until those criteria are gone.

LASIK surgery permanently reshapes the cornea. The cornea is the covering over the front of the eye. The laser is used to make incisions in specific spots on the eye so that your specific vision problem can be corrected. The meetings before the surgery take the longest time with measuring the eye, and other tests. The surgery itself seems like two zaps and then you’re done! Your eyes are held still with a vacuum suction device so there is no worry that you’ll accidentally move your eyes and be blind for life.

The main reason LASIK surgery is so popular is because it eliminates the problems glasses and contacts pose when active. You cannot go surfing, sailing, swimming with glasses or contacts. If your vision is pretty bad, then you really cannot see without your glasses or contacts. What you can do is really limited by that fact. Too much wind and your contacts dry out, too much dust and your eyes hurt. Glasses are much more restrictive as they can blow off, get bent, knocked off very easy.

Even though this eye surgery seems expensive, it is really cheap compared to the cost of frequent new glasses, contacts and activities that you are prevented from doing. There really is nothing like being able to see again!