Laser eye surgery

Laser eye surgery has corrected the sight of millions of people worldwide and its popularity continues to grow. Laser eye surgery cost has reduced in recent years, yet the procedure has become safer and more accurate, giving more people the confidence to have it done. There are over 30 clinics nationwide including multiples such as Optical Express and smaller independent clinics such as the Moorfields Eye Hospital.

Lasik and Lasek are the two most common eye laser treatments due to the amazing visual results that they produce. Of the two Lasik eye surgery is by far the most popular, accounting for approximately seven times more procedures than Lasek eye surgery. This is mainly due to the fact that Lasik surgery results in quicker healing times and less discomfort when compared with Lasek. People having Lasik surgery can therefore return back to work and resume normal activities sooner than those having Lasek.

Intralase Lasik is increasing in popularity and it is generally considered the gold standard in Lasik eye surgery. Intralase eye surgery uses a laser to create the flap compared with a surgical blade used in standard Lasik. This means that Lasik Intralase generally results in a safer and more accurate procedure with lower laser eye surgery risks.

Intralase lasik, standard Lasik and Lasek eye surgery can all be combined with Wavefront which yields even more impressive visual results. Wavefront laser eye surgery improves the quality as well as the quantity (how low down the chart you can read) of your vision as it takes into account all the tiny imperfections on the surface of your eye. Wavefront surgery is often recommended to those people with large pupils who are at a higher risk of developing night vision problems following laser eye surgery. Wavefront eye surgery helps keeps such night vision problems to a minimum, and can in some cases give even better night vision than you had before your surgery.

With recent developments, laser eye surgery is not only effective at correcting distance vision but now offers new treatments to improve age related near vision deterioration. This natural deterioration in near vision with age is called presbyopia and typically occurs between the ages of 40 to 45 years old. Such laser eye surgery treatments include CK treatment, monovision laser and Multifocal Lasik.

Although laser vision correction can correct the sight of the vast majority of people, there are however still some people who will be unsuitable for laser eye surgery. This can sometimes be the case for people who have very high prescriptions that are beyond the range that laser eye surgery can correct. The two main alternatives to laser eye surgery are implantable contact lenses or refractive lens exchange.