Benefit of Laser Surgery

The human eye is one of the most vital organs because our vision affects almost every activity of our life. Too many people suffer from myopia, astigmatism or hyperopia and this used to mean that they have to live with glasses or contact lenses for the rest of their lifes. However thanks to laser eye surgery this is no longer the case.

Advantages

A successful laser eye surgery means that you are able to see well without having to wear glasses or contacts any more. This also means improved appearance for people that hate wearing glasses. People who have been through laser eye surgery can choose among all the sunglasses that are available on the world. No more custom sunglasses for myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism! No more cleaning

solutions for the contacts, no more accidentally broken glasses and no more expenses to buy new contacts and glasses. These are the benefits of performing a successful laser eye surgery

Disadvantages

This surgery can be quite expensive, usually the greater the correction the higher the cost. Some people complain about bad night vision even after a successful laser eye surgery. This is usually happens when they look at a light (they see star bursts around the lights). Some times the surgery is not 100% successful and must be done again. In some rare cases the results don’t last (especially for order people) and these people need to wear glasses again or go through a repeat surgery.

Types of laser eye surgery

Two are the main types of laser eye surgery: LASIK and PRK

LASIK eye surgery

This type is the most recent type of laser eye surgery. It is refractive eye surgery and it use widely used to correct the refractive state of the eye. In other words the surgeon cuts the flap in the cornea and uses laser to correctly shape the layers underneath. Refractive eye surgery can cure myopia, astigmatism, hyperopia and keratoconus.

PRK eye surgery

PRK (photorefractive keratectomy) is also a type of refractive surgery. It also involves correction of the refractive state of the eye (correctly shaping the cornea with the laser) in order to correct myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism.

PRK eye surgery vs LASIK eye surgery

Both methods have great results. The main difference is that with LASIK method the recovery is faster and the person can see better faster than with PRK method. On the other hand PRK surgery does not involve the creation of corneal flap and this means less risk of corneal flap complications. Also with PRK surgery the entire thickness of the cornea is available for treatment because this type of procedure does not create a corneal flap. This makes PRK surgery ideal in some cases of people who have already perform Laser eye surgery. PRK also has slightly higher risk of post- surgery infection .

Results of PRK and LASIK eye surgery

Both methods have very similar successful results. Most people have perfect vision after the surgery while a few people will still need to wear glasses or contacts after the surgery but even for them the prescription will be much lower than before.

So which method is better?

Lasik procedure is the most popular method used today, but this does not mean that it is the most suitable laser surgery procedure for everyone. Your doctor will examine you first and will decide which method suits your needs best. For some people PRK method is preferred over LASIK mainly because of the different thickness of the cornea that each person has.

All in all even though laser eye surgery offers astonishing results, this does not mean that you will have perfect vision for the rest of your life. For example presbyopia is age related and is causing loss of near sight vision which means that someone who has performed laser eye surgery might need glasses for reading at some point of his life.