Laser eye surgery results

Thanks to eye laser surgery , millions of people throughout the world no longer have to wear their glasses or contact lenses. When considering laser eye surgery, one of the most commonly asked questions is: How well am I likely to see after laser eye surgery?

People often consider this more important than laser eye surgery risks as they are so intent on not having to wear spectacles or contact lenses following their surgery. Most clinical studies of Laser eye surgery results have the following 3 components as a measure of their success:

An assessment of the number of patients that achieve 6/6 vision or better: (20/20 vision is the American term for 6/6).

An Assesment of how many achieve 6/12 vision or better: This is the driving vision standard. 6/12 vision is 2 lines above (worse) the 6/6 vision on the opticians letter chart.

The number of people that get within one dioptre of Zero prescription (emmetropia): For example if your prescription is -6.00 then getting to within one dioptre of emmetropia would mean that following your laser eye treatnent your prescription would be +1.00 or -1.00.

Expected Laser eye surgery results

Your prescription before Expected Vision after
Laser eye Surgery: Laser eye Surgery:

Low to Moderate Myopia                   > 6/12 ~ 98%
(-0.50 to -5.00)                                    > 6/6    ~ 90%

Moderate to High Myopia                  > 6/12 ~ 90%
(-5.00 to -9.00)                                    > 6/6   ~ 82%

Low to Moderate Hypermetropia      > 6/12 ~ 98%
(+0.50 to +3.00)                                    > 6/6 ~ 80%

Mixed Astigmatism > 6/12 ~ 99%
> 6/6 ~ 92%

6/12 equivalent to UK minimum driving test standard of vision.

6/6 is equivalent to 20/20

Laser eye surgery results are likely to be better for Wavefront procedures.
Laser eye surgery results are likely to be better for Intralase procedures.

Other Factors about Laser eye surgery results:

Vision fluctuates after surgery: Vision typically improves over the days and weeks following the treatment so most laser eye surgery results studies measure vision immediately after surgery, one week after surgery and at one, three and six months intervals. Expect your vision to be at its best about 3-4 months following laser eye surgery.
Better results with lower prescriptions: However if you have a particularly high prescription then your surgeon will probably recommend that you have Wavefront laser eye surgery as this results in better visual outcomes.
Better results with short sighted prescriptions: Short sighted prescriptions achieve better results than longsighted prescriptions.
Very close to 100% of patients achieve vision good enough for driving.

Final Factors to consider with Laser eye surgery results:

When comparing the laser eye surgery results from one clinic to another it is important to ensure you are comparing like with like. If one clinic’s results relate to Intralase Wavefront Lasik and the other to standard Lasik then this is not a fair comparison.

It is also important to find the results of the laser eye surgery clinic for the exact procedure and prescription that relates to you. Often results may be published relating to the most expensive and most accurate laser eye surgery procedure but you may not be able to afford this. Wavefront and Intralase Lasik yield better results, as do low prescriptions and people with small pupils. So if your prescription is -8.00 and you are having standard Lasik, then be sure to ask your surgeon what the typical laser eye surgery results are for that scenario.

Most surgeons should be able to provide you with their own personal laser eye surgery results showing what percentage of their patients achieved 6/6 and 6/12 after their laser eye surgery for the various different procedures and prescriptions.

If there is still anything you are uncertain of why not ask a question in our laser eye surgery forum.