Laser Eye Surgery
Laser eye surgery is the most commonly carried out elective surgery in the UK with around 100,000 people each year deciding to have the treatment. There are 2 main types of laser eye surgery and they are Lasik and Lasek. Although the procedures differ slightly, the way the laser corrects the vision is the same for both. The laser effectively reshapes the surface of the eye (the cornea) in such a way to eliminate the prescription in your glasses or contact lenses. Up until recently, laser eye surgery has generally only been used to correct people who have problems with their distance vision. However, recent developments in laser eye surgery mean that there are now treatments available that can correct both your distance and reading vision. As we get older (over 45 years old) our reading vision starts to naturally deteriorate and the name given to this is presbyopia. Presbyopia is caused by a hardening of the natural lens within our eye, which results in it becoming more rigid. Whenever we focus on a near vision task, such as reading, the lens within our eye has to change shape in order to achieve this close focus. With presbyopia, the lens cannot change shape as much (less flexible) and consequently our close vision is impaired. If you are over the age of 45 years old then you can now choose from a number of laser eye surgery procedures including monovision, CK treatment, laser blended vision and KAMRA vision inlays. The aim of all these treatments is to correct your distance vision whilst also improving your near vision.
Laser eye surgery is extremely accurate and can be used to treat long sightedness, short sightedness or astigmatism. It is most effective at treating short sighted prescriptions and can treat up to -12.00 Dioptres. For long sightlessness and astigmatism, the laser can correct up to about 5 dioptres. Although the success rates vary between clinics there is about a 97% success rate of correcting short sighted prescription to 20:20 vision or better. These figures are slightly lower for astigmatism and long sighted prescription but they are still very impressive. The reason the results are so impressive is due to the advancement in the excimer lasers which are not extremely accurate. In addition to this there have been other developments such as Intralase (femtosecond lasers) and Wavefront laser eye surgery. All of these developments improve both the accuracy and safety of laser eye surgery. The risks of laser eye surgery are now at an all-time low with most clinics having a complication rate of only 0.1%. Even if you are unlucky enough to experience a laser eye surgery complication, in the vast majority of cases they are easily treatable by a skilled surgeon.
Providing you are suitable for Lasik eye surgery then there is very little recovery time required after the procedure. Most people can return to work within 24 hours of having the procedure and there is very little discomfort involved. If your surgeon advises that you are only suitable for Lasek eye surgery then you are likely to need up to 1 week off surgery. This type of laser eye surgery will generally only be recommended if you are involved in contact sports such as martial arts or have very thin corneas. For most people laser eye surgery will last a life time, although this can never be 100% guaranteed. The laser re-treatment rates are approximately 4% and most clinics will perform the laser enhancement for free. If you are thinking about having laser eye treatment then the best thing to do is to book in for a consultation to assess if you are suitable and to find out all your options.
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