Anybody got LASIK?

markymark · 10-14-2009, 06:45 PM

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

Good luck with your research

10-14-2009, 06:45 PM	#28 (permalink)
markymark Base Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Sydney Posts: 51 Drives: white 370z 6MT Rep Power: 17	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 Good luck with your research