Are You Suitable For LASIK Surgery?
If you
are considering LASIK surgery, you ought to endure a radical examination
by an oculist to see if you are a suitable candidate
for the procedure. The examination done ought to include your case
history as well as a discussion about your lifestyle.
This
article explains the three issues LASIK can fix, the potential side effects
of the surgery, who is going to benefit from LASIK surgery, and
the seven eye tests which will help you and your eye care
specialist determine if LASIK is good for you.
What
is LASIK?
LASIK stands for Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis. It's a surgery that reshapes the cornea that is the clear, spherical dome at the front of your eye that will correct three eye problems:
- Nearsightedness (myopia), happens when your distance visual sense is blurred (and close-up vision is clear). This suggests that the cornea is more curved than it normally should be.
- Farsightedness (hyperopia), is when your close-up vision is blurred (and your distance visual sense is clear). This suggests the cornea is just too flat.
- Astigmatism is when vision is blurred or distorted as a result of the cornea being shaped irregularly.
During
LASIK surgery, an eye surgeon makes a tiny low flap in the
cornea and folds it back. Then they use an optical laser to
reshape the membrane and fold the flap back. The surgery is quick, it
takes about fifteen minutes for each eye—and is comparatively painless.
LASIK
surgery has a successful track record, notably among those
who have myopic. Studies recommend that 94 per cent of
moderately myopic folks walk out of the procedure with 20/40
vision or higher (20/20 vision is the ideal). And, 70 per
cent of patients enjoy 20/25 vision or higher.
- Flap issues, notable infection and excess tears from folding back the flap throughout the surgery.
- Glare, halos and visual defects, which can make seeing at nighttime a challenge.
- ·Under-correction, which
might happen if insufficient tissue is removed
from the eye. If this happens, another surgery (an
"enhancement") is also performed.
- Over-correction, which happens once an excessive amount of tissue is removed. Fixing an over-correction is trickier than an under-correction.
- Astigmatism, which might be caused by uneven tissue removal. Glasses, contact lenses, or another surgery may well be necessary.
- Corneal ectasis, a bulging and cutting of the membrane i.e., cornea. Treating this might mean wearing corrective glasses or contact lenses.
- Vision
loss or changes, which might leave some women unable to
have a clear vision as they did before. Still, these changes are
mostly rare.
Dry
Eye after LASIK
A
study found that 1/2 of LASIK patients had full-fledged dry
eye one week after they had LASIK surgery. The number fell
to 40 per cent after one month and after six months it fell between 20
per cent and 40 per cent. Dry eye is often treated with eye
drops.
Suitable
Candidates for LASIK
It's possible that
LASIK's successful data is partly because of proper vetting, which
means only women who meet the criteria can have
the surgery. Candidates for LASIK surgery should be healthy adult
women who are twenty-one years or older and have been using the same eyeglass
or contact lens prescription for a minimum of a year.
On the other hand, LASIK is not advisable for women who:
- Are pregnant or nursing
- Have unsteady hormones thanks to sicknesses like diabetes
- Take medications causing vision fluctuations
This doesn't mean that everybody else is good to proceed with LASIK surgery. Most surgeons will make sure that acute or chronic conditions are adequately managed or alleviated before approving somebody for LASIK surgery. Some of these conditions include:
- Autoimmune diseases like HIV/AIDS, lupus, MS (multiple sclerosis, or arthritis
- Cataracts or eye disease
- Diabetes
- Any eye injury or infection
If you
are getting treated with one of these problems, you
ought to still go through the LASIK prequalification tests and
work together with your oculist to make your eyes healthy.
Prequalification
Tests for LASIK Eye Surgery
Your
eye doctor should perform these tests to help in
deciding whether or not you should proceed with LASIK surgery.
These tests include:
Prescription
Check
Before
LASIK, an oculist uses cycloplegic eye drops. These drops temporarily paralyze
the focusing muscle within your eye. This enables the doctor to
measure your total prescription while not forcing you to focus
too hard. Basically, it lets the oculist collect the raw information of
your true vision.
Eye
Muscle check
In
this, a binocular vision assessment is done for checking how your
eyes work together. Your doctor wants to make
sure that you don't have a binocular vision disorder. In
this, the eyes cannot merge the images into one within
the brain
The
disorder may result in several vision issues, such as dizziness and double
vision to light sensitivity i.e., photophobia and poor depth perception. Such
disorders could interfere with positive LASIK results; therefore, your oculist may
want to eliminate it as a risk issue.
Tear
Analysis
Teat
analysis is done with the qualitative and quantitative tear film tests which
examine your natural tears. If either one of these
measures isn't optimum, your doctor could opt
to delay the LASIK procedure till the standard quality and
quantity of your natural tears are achieved.
Cornea
Measurements
Corneal
topography is a computerised technique for determining the
precise shape and form of the cornea. Once measurements are
taken, they are computed and placed into colour maps.
Hotter colours, such as red show steeper areas whereas cooler colours show
flatter areas.
Some
patients have a cornea shape and form that doesn't cause issues before
LASIK, however, it may place them in danger of
developing a corneal disease, like astigmatism, after LASIK is
done. This disease is caused when the cornea thins out
and bulges outward to create a cone.
Wavefront
analysis is comparatively a new development in eye care and
may be important to measure vision
deficits called higher-order aberrations. These are just
like lower-order aberrations, like myopia, longsightedness,
and astigmatism. Altogether these aberrations and imperfections of
the cornea cause distorted vision.
Higher-order
aberrations appear to be apparent in some patients and
sometimes cause symptoms like diminished scotopic vision,
glare, and halos around lights.
Corneal
Thickness measuring
A corneal thickness measuring (also called pachymetry)
discloses the thickness of the cornea and whether or
not it's swollen. This fast and
straightforward measuring is very important for potential LASIK
patients as the surgery will depend on the health of the cornea. Women
with very skinny corneas might not be suitable LASIK
candidates.
Pupil
Size measuring
Women
with naturally giant pupils or pupils that dilate heavily in the dim light are
prone to a lot of glare, halos, and contrast issues when
they have had LASIK surgery. However, with today's optical laser techniques,
this is less of a problem.
Nonetheless, pupil size is measured with special devices, like an infrared
pupillometer, in order to devise a better surgical plan.
Healthy adults over the age of 21 who have been using the same eyewear or lens prescription for a minimum of one year are usually suitable candidates for LASIK surgery. Women who are pregnant or nursing, with unsteady hormones because of sickness, or if they take medications that will cause vision changes usually are not suitable candidates.