Introduction to Laser Treatment for Eyes
Is laser treatment for eyes your best option?
The
best gift in the world for people suffering from vision problems would
probably be the possibility to get their clear eye sight back, once and
for all. If you suffer from myopia, hyperopia or astigmatism, and you
are sick and tired of wearing your glasses or contact lenses, than
laser treatment for eyes might be the perfect solution for your
problems.
In order to decide whether or not laser treatment for eyes (also known
as laser eye surgery or LASIK) is the best option for you, you must
be well informed about all the factors related to this type of
procedure. We'll now go over the most important ones: the mechanism
behind the operation itself, the problems that may appear when going
through this kind of surgery and the average cost.
The Operation
After
deciding to have the laser treatment for eyes operation, your surgeon
will present you with the
requirements you need to fulfill before having the actual procedure. If
you wear soft contact lenses, you will most certainly have to stop
wearing them 5 to 20 days before the operation. In case of hard contact
lenses, this period of time increases to a minimum of six weeks.
Since the actual operation only takes a few minutes, you will be
totally awake and mobile during the procedure. You will, however, be
given
anesthetic eye drops, so that the discomfort will be minimum.
The first step of the surgery is flap creation or, in other words,
temporary removing a thin layer of the cornea in order to expose the
stroma (the middle section of the cornea). Once this step is complete,
the surgeon will remodel the corneal stroma using an excimer laser. No
cutting or burning with heat is required; the laser safely vaporizes
the tissue, not damaging the adjacent part of the cornea.
The final step of the laser treatment for eyes surgery is repositioning
the flap that was
previously removed from the eye.
Once the surgery is finalized, you will most probably be given a course
of anti-inflammatory eye drops and antibiotics.
Laser Surgery for Eyes Risks
As
in any other procedure,
there will always be certain risks attached to laser eye surgery.
However, before going into the most common postoperative complications,
you should probably know that the patient satisfaction rate worldwide
is 95.4 percent!
The most frequently reported complications include dry eyes, light
sensitivity and visual acuity fluctuation. Read
Laser
Eye Surgery Risks
for more information on
the
subject.
Laser Treatment for Eyes Cost
Depending on numerous factors,
the cost of such an operation varies from $1000 to even $3000 per eye.
This means that in order to have both your eyes treated, the price
range is $2000 - $6000. For a more detailed analysis, make sure you
read this article.
Having laser treatment for eyes is the most viable,
safe and fast way to a clear eye sight! However, before deciding to go
through such an operation, you have to make sure that you know all its
benefits and risks. As mentioned before, more than 95 percent of the
LASIK patients were pleased with the results!