As I promised in my previous post, today I am going to discuss some of the reasons that I regularly hear, that put people off having laser eye surgery. Having laser eye surgery is not a decision that can be made lightly and people have also sorts of worries and concerns about the procedure. Over the past month or so, I have been asking patients whose eyes I have tested to give me the reasons that would put them off having the procedure. One of the most common things that kept coming up, was the worry that laser eye surgery does not last forever.
As a result I thought I would use this blog post to address this issue, to see if I could help reassure people in any way. As with all surgical procedures, no one could ever say with a hundred percent certainty that something is going to last forever. The same can be said about laser eye surgery and any surgeon claiming otherwise is simply not telling the truth. However there are certain facts about how long laser eye surgery lasts, that may help you make your decision:
- Only 5-10% of people having laser eye surgery need to have a laser re-enhancement (re-treatment). So that means for every 100 people who have laser eye surgery between 5-10 people need to have it done again. Most clinics will do the retreatment (providing your suitable) for free, if it is within a certain period of time from first having your surgery. You need to check the exact policy regarding this before you agree to have the surgery.
- High prescriptions (over -5.00) are more likely to regress than lower prescriptions.
- Plus prescriptions (eg +4.00) are more likely to need a re-treatment than minus prescriptions.
- The re-treatment rates are the same for both Lasik and Lasek.
- The chances of your prescription returning back to what it was before surgery is almost zero. What typically happens when your eyes regress is that your prescription partially returns. For example if you were -5.00 before surgery, then your eyes may regress to -1.00.
As you can see from this post, having laser eye surgery is not an absolute guarantee that you are going to have perfect vision for the rest of your life. However, the chances of needing a re-treatment are small and in most cases your eyes can be re-lasered, often at no cost to you.
Hope this post has been helpful and please let me know if there is anything you are still unsure of. Either comment on this blog post or ask a question in our laser eye surgery forum,
Until next time
