LASIK Vision Correction

[goodguy_1]

if you live in south Florida try Univ.of Miami's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute - one of the best in the country.

[daveT]

The Mayo Clinic is supposed to be really good.

I think if your doctor does not tell you the following, you should continue on.

Before surgery, your eye doctor takes a detailed medical history and uses specialized equipment to carefully measure your cornea, noting the shape and any irregularities.

If you wear contact lenses, you'll need to switch to glasses full time a few weeks before this exam. Contact lenses can distort the shape of your cornea, which could lead to inaccurate measurements and a poor surgical outcome.

And things that may prevent you from getting approval for this procedure. I know that my left tear duct is damaged, so I think this would be out of the question for me.

* An immune system disease. Diseases that affect your immune system may impair your ability to heal after surgery. The risks of incomplete healing, infection and other complications are increased whether you have an autoimmune disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis, or an immunodeficiency disease, such as HIV. Taking an immunosuppressive drug also disqualifies you from having this surgery.
* Persistent dry eyes. Any condition that causes dry eyes, including the autoimmune disease Sjogren's syndrome, is likely to impair healing.
* Eye characteristics. An extremely uneven corneal surface or an otherwise abnormally shaped cornea may make surgery more difficult to perform.
* The stability of your vision. If the quality of your vision is fluctuating or progressively worsening, you may not be eligible for LASIK eye surgery.
* Other factors. Your eye doctor will take into account additional factors. For example, deep-set eyes may make the surgery more difficult and risky.

http://www.revolutionhealth.com/heal.../lasik-surgery

[Berge20]

Don't want to side-track the discussion, but is there any method/exercise that people can use to strengthen their eyes and improve their vision?

[daveT]

I know that there are ways to sharpen your eyes, but that is if your eyes are slightly bad (20/30). The air-force had these exercises, that are basically focus exercises.

I have heard of people making visual recovery, but that is likely from histarical blindness (sp?). Also people with say 20/30 and 20/40 sometimes fluctuate back to 20/20, etc.

I have seen those ads for "classes" that is supposed to recover bad eye-sight. I am sure they are scams, though.

I have researched this and found that there is a point where there is nothing you can do with your eyes but use corrective procedures.

[mikech]

i had lasik done in april of '05, and while i don't regret it, i also wouldn't recommend it unequivocally.

on the positives side, my vision went from heavily nearsighted to 20/20. after needing to wear glasses or contacts for most of my life, it was incredibly liberating to wake up in the morning and just open my eyes and be able to SEE.

however, there were negatives as well. as has been mentioned, your eyes become very dry and you'll need drops for a considerable length of time; i had to use them for several months. my eyes also *felt* very different: it just always felt like i had dust or a hair or something in my eyes. i got used to it but it was uncomfortable for a while. furthermore, although my vision is technically 20/20, i'm still left with some glare problems--i.e., when driving at night i see halos around car lights.

all of these things i learned to adjust to, and they don't outweigh the benefit of the pure vision improvement. if i were to score it from 1-100, i'd give the whole thing around an 85. i'm glad i had it done, but i wouldn't call it an unqualified success. obviously YMMV, but that was my experience.

[mattak]

Had Lasik done 18 months ago and I am in the "best money I ever spent" camp. The best recommendation I can give is that I often forget that I even had it. I had it done on a sunday and was at work on tuesday. I have had zero side effects. I feel that this is because I spent some $ to have the higher end surgery done. I had many questions about the surgery before hand so I went armed to the consultation with questions reguarding night vision, chance of damage etc. The doc answered all my questions. Get the surgery. Research the place you go. Pay for the best.

[Dudd]

I had a different surgery done, PRK, which is pretty much the same as LASIK except for that it doesn't cut a flap into your eye but instead removes the outer layer of your cornea and lets it regrow. The docs recommended it because of how poor my eyesight was, I'm not sure what it was in 20/20 but my contact strength was -6.75 and -6.25, so it was quite a change. It's been a little under 3 months since the surgery and I'm seeing great, haven't used drops since the end of the first month. Highly recommended.

[tufat23]

wow i really think im gonna get this after reading these reviews

[jalexand42]

Hey for you guys that had PRK, how long was it before you were seeing good?

That's what the excellent LASIK place here in town recommended to me...just curious how long before the epithelium heals and you're seeing good again after the procedure? How much discomfort did you have?

Anyone in here had to deal with irregular astigmatism? I apparently have that in my eye that has never been corrected well with glasses.


As far as my friends' experience, everyone I know raves about LASIK. But they have all gone to the cadillac place in town too, so yellowsub - definitely find the best place wherever you are. I know the associated higher price won't be a huge deal for you, so definitely find the place with the best reputation.

[jalexand42]

[ QUOTE ]
My eyes have been changing recently (good eye getting better, bad eye getting worse). Would this change after surgery, or does this mean I just wouldn't be able to get it done?

[/ QUOTE ]

The good places will usually want your eyes to have been pretty stable for a year before doing a procedure.