LASIK

It has always been the hopes and dreams of people wearing spectacles or contacts that one day we no longer have to.. and the day has come together with technology, and of course a hefty pricetag..

LASIK on YouTube

this is Wikipedia’s take on the procedure:

LASIK or Lasik (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) is a type of refractive surgery for correcting myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. LASIK is performed by ophthalmologistslaser. LASIK is similar to other surgical corrective procedures such as photorefractive keratectomy, PRK, (also called ASA, Advanced Surface Ablation) though it provides benefits such as faster patient recovery. Both LASIK and PRK represent advances over radial keratotomy in the surgical treatment of vision problems, and are thus viable alternatives to wearing corrective eyeglasses or contact lenses for many patients.

The operation is performed with the patient awake and mobile; however, the patient is sometimes given a mild sedative (such as Valium) and anesthetic eye drops.

LASIK is performed in three steps. The first step is to create a flap of corneal tissue. The second step is remodeling of the cornea underneath the flap with the laser. Finally, the flap is repositioned.

The surveys determining patient satisfaction with LASIK have found most patients satisfied, with satisfaction range being 92–98 percent. A meta-analysis dated March 2008 performed by the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery over 3,000 peer-reviewed articles published over the past 10 years in clinical journals from around the world, including 19 studies comprising 2,200 patients that looked directly at satisfaction, revealed a 95.4 percent patient satisfaction rate among LASIK patients worldwide.

The risk for a patient of suffering from disturbing visual side effects such as halos, double vision (ghosting), loss of contrast sensitivity (foggy vision) and glare after LASIK depends on the degree of ametropia before the laser eye surgery and other risk factors. For this reason, it is important to take into account the individual risk potential of a patient and not just the average probability for all patients. The following are some of the more frequently reported complications of LASIK^:

• Surgery induced dry eyes
• Overcorrection or undercorrection
• Very Low level vitamin D – Sun sensitivity
• Visual acuity fluctuation
• Halos or starbursts around light sources at night
• Light sensitivity
• Ghost images or double vision
• Wrinkles in flap (striae)
• Decentered ablation
• Debris or growth under flap
• Thin or buttonhole flap
• Induced astigmatism
• Corneal Ectasia
• Floaters
• Epithelium erosion

So what do you guys think?? Dare to give it a try??

I for one feel skeptical about it, cos i don’t think that wearing spectacles pose a problem neither in terms of convenience or cosmetic *wink*