:iagree: I still remember my times.....right eye = 1 minute 20 seconds left eye = 52 seconds

I do remember having "halos" for awhile afterwards. Actually, right after it was over they asked me to look at the clock in the office (which of course was strategically placed so you didn't have to lift your head) and I could actually tell the time. Fuzzy, yes....but I could! And I had astigmetism (spelling?) so that wasn't a factor, either. :tup:

Digitonium,

Im an optometrist, and ure dilemma's a pretty common one these days - I get a couple of patients every day enquiring about it.

XwChrisxW mentioned PRK - if sports are ure main concern its a good alternative as there is no corneal flap created during surgery. Downsides however is that post-op comfort is quite worse than LASIK in the first 24 hours and recovery time is also longer. It also doesnt mean you can have volleyballs smashing into your eyes every weekend, as you can still get complications due to the thinner cornea. FOV should be quite good postop but u may still get the intermittant cloudy vision during ure games as dry eyes is a very common complication.

As for vision we do expect the majority of people to get glare/flare, and as I said dry eye issues postop as the corneal stromal nerves are cut during the creation of the flap in LASIK or lasered off in PRK. If you have big pupils ure going to find night vision driving has a lot of glare after surgery, so thats another consideration esp with the bright xenons our Z's have.

Another thing is as we hit 40-45 you'll need reading specs, which the LASIK doesnt address. Not a big issue but some people are unaware and believe LASIK means no specs for life - alas we're not there yet.

That being said LASIK has improved dramatically over the last 4-5 years, and with the wavefront technology and intralase (cutting flap with laser) most people are very happy with surgery and postop complications are much rarer now. So although the old horror stories of dislocating corneal flaps still can happen these days its much less likely - I havent seen any in the last 2-3 years, my colleague saw one recently but thats because the patient was an idiot and rubbed his eyes like crazy on the first week postop :mad:

Good luck with your research

Ha you beat me to my post... ninja edit.

Holy moly times have changed! I thought it was 5-15min. per eye. No wonder people ended up getting both eyes done.

My biggest concern is rubbing of the eye and playing sports. I guess there's this huge risk of someone spiking the ball into my face and dislocating the flap on my eyes... big time paranoia. Ah so rubbing of the eyes definitely needs to be avoided like common sense. I definitely have dry eye issues with contacts, so I am a bit worried if it gets worse for life after the surgery.

If I remember right, they gave me two different drops that I had to use twice (or maybe three) times a day for five days. After that, my eye doctor saw me once a month for about 6 months straight. And that was all she wrote......been doing well ever since.

Awesome... I can only imagine what HD and gaming in HD is like without glasses and contacts (sans glare, reflection, and dryness lawl). ;-)

Looking into LASIK myself, though I'm quite scared of the LOOOOONG time consequences.

^such as?

I'm 30 and had the PRK surgery done earlier this year, although I had incredibly rare complications, I am very pleased with the results and would recommend it assuming you have a high pain tolerance.


I would suggest PRK if you are concerned with impact occuring to your eye.
I considered Lasik but when I told my surgeon that I fight amateur MMA he said Lasik wasn't a feasable option due to the repeated impact so I should opt for PRK, there is zero chance of complications due to impact because there is no flap created when PRK is performed.

The downside is the surgery recovery time with PRK is about a week as opposed to 48 hours with Lasik and the recovery is incredibly painful as opposed to virtually painless with Lasik.

As mentioned previously I had complications but that is due to human negligence. When you get PRK done, there are contact lenses placed in your eye which act as a shield to protect the eye and allow healing to occur underneath. After a week they are removed, sadly my doctors assistant is an incompetent retard and after numbing my eyes ripped both contact lenses out and didn't notice the significant eye tissue was attached to each lens because she didn't bother to lubricate my eyes.

When I went home and the numbing wore off 3 hours later I felt like I had been stabbed in each eyeball and of course the clinic was now closed. It was one of the longest most painful nights of my life and when I went to the clinic the next morning the receptionist had me in with the doctor within 60seconds of seeing how pissed off I was.

The doctor apologized numerous times about his assistant but realistically they have you sign a stack of legal sheets so unless your vision is actually damaged you have to get over it. A week later my eyes finally healed properly and have been perfect ever since.

wife had hers done 5-6 years ago. loves it no issues. both eyes.

Well LASIK's still relatively a new technology. I'm just not too confident on LASIK's long term effect after 30-40+ years post operation.

^^^ what you lead you not to be confident. besides just a funny feeling?

Actually, it's not that "new"......

The LASIK technique was successfully applied in other countries before it arrived to the United States. The first U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) trial of the Excimer laser was started in 1989. The first use of the laser was to change the surface shape of the cornea, known as PRK. Dr. Joseph Dello Russo was one of the ten original FDA researchers who tested and got approval for the Visx laser. The LASIK concept was first introduced by Dr. Palliakaris in 1992 to the group of ten surgeons who were selected by the FDA to test the Visx laser at 10 centers in the U.S.

....I had no idea it started that far back.

HAHA... Had I known I was going to be in this industry before, I would have spent the extra money and picked some cool looking glasses. :D

LASIK is pretty much the only option for me now.

UPDATE, no need to be scared by the sensationalism or political slant by media

LASIK draws FDA attention, warnings | Booster Shots | Los Angeles Times
;)

I had it done about 6 years ago and very happy, I have hit that age that reading glasses are almost a must but can get away without them most of the time. I would do it again, just make sure you investigate who will do it for you, don't make your decision based on price, at the time I paid a high price and went with an MD who did eye surgeries for a living and very happy with the decision.