Corrective Eye Surgery - What's Available?

There are several types of laser assisted corrective eye surgery procedures available to people. Undoubtedly lasik eye surgery is the most popular but there are alternative procedures which all differ in some way.

Obviously the common goal of each of the following corrective eye surgery procedures is to improve vision and they may provide an alternative to lasik.

Lasek is similar to Lasik.It’s often performed on people with thin corneas who would make poor candidates for Lasik eye surgery. With Lasek eye surgery, only the outer layer of the cornea is cut, therefore not as much of the cornea is removed. Since alcohol is used to loosen the flap, the risk to the cornea is not as great. It is a newer corrective eye surgery and is used to treat astigmatism, nearsightedness and farsightedness.

Longer healing times have been experienced with Lasek. Although a blade is used with Lasek, it is a finer blade than the microkeratome that is used with Lasik. While patients who have Lasik eye surgery often see well the day after surgery, Lasek patients may take up to two weeks to see well again. Longer recovery times is probably the biggest drawback to Lasek eye surgery as patients have to take more time off from work.

Other Similar Corrective Eye Surgery Procedures

Epi-Lasik is not unlike Lasek where the flap is cut only in the epithelium. However,in this type of corrective eye surgery, surgeons don't use a blade or alcohol but instead, an epikeratome. This is a separator which creates an epithelial sheet. Alcolhol is not used in this procedure, consequently, less pain is likely to be felt by patients. As a rule, healing time is also faster.

Bladeless lasik is similar to regular Lasik eye surgery except that no blade is used to create the flap. Instead another laser is used. IntraLase, the technology used to create the flap may be safer than regular Lasik eye surgery which uses a bladed instrument to create the flap. Although complications are relatively rare, an oscillating blade presents more opportunity for an accident to occur.

Photorefractive Keratectomy is a corrective eye surgery procedure that treats nearsightedness, mild to moderate farsightedness, and astigmatism.A tissue is removed from the cornea's surface by the surgeon reducing a patient's vision problems.An excimer laser treatment is used to remove surface tissue from the cornea. If you’re nearsighted, the surgeon will attempt to flatten the cornea, which is too steep. If you’re farsighted, the surgeon will attempt to make the cornea steeper.The process usually takes around one minute to perform. With PRK corrective eye surgery, no flap is made in the cornea at all.

Success rates are extremely high for these types of corrective eye surgery but you should gather all the necessary facts about them before making a decision.