Vision Eyecare Lasik Health and Medical News/Updates

Lasik surgery is a procedure that permanently changes the shape of the cornea, the clear covering of the front of the eye, using an excimer laser. Houston has been at the forefront of implementing new technology in the treatment of myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. Thus, lasik Houston has the most advanced laser system today called the Wavelight Allegretto Excimer Laser System, which has been approved by the FDA.
The City is home to the only eye care center that exclusively performs lasik treatments. Since their expertise is primarily focused on laser vision correction, this area not only has the latest diagnostic and surgical equipment, but the doctors who perform Lasik surgery are experts in their field.
Lasik Houston allows for an affordable alternative to lasik surgery since they own their own equipment. Moreover, because they are an FDA investigational site, they were first to be approved for the Wavelight Allegretto Excimer Laser System they now utilize successfully today.
In order to fully understand why the Wavelight Allegretto Excimer Laser System is so successful, it is important to explain how a typical laser procedure was performed prior to the Wavelight. The cornea is that part of the eye that allows one to focus light which creates an image on the retina. Refraction is the process whereby the light is bent and focused. Thus, if an object is blurry or out of focus, this is known as a refractive error. Individuals who wear glasses or contact lenses are suffering from some form of refractive error and therefore laser surgery may be indicated also known as refractive surgery.
The surgery itself reshapes the cornea to allow for more acute vision. One of the first laser procedures ever performed was known as PRK. It was designed to reshape the cornea by using a laser. In this procedure, the top layer of the cornea is scraped away while in lasik surgery, a flap is cut and the cornea is reshaped to produce optimum focus.
The advancement in technology in general and for the doctors in particular, lasik surgery not only cuts the actual surgery time down to a bare minimum, but affords the patients at International EyeCare the opportunity to experience the new Wavelight Allegretto Excimer Laser System by skilled surgeons whose only task is to improve one’s vision more effectively than ever before.
The procedure has little discomfort during and after surgery. It is not done with general anesthesia. The ophthalmologist will put numbing drops into the eye before the treatment. The surgery takes approximately 30 minutes for the entire procedure.
Any pain experienced after surgery will be taken care of with an over the counter pain medication. Most of the time both eyes are done the same day. After the surgery patients must not drive, therefore transportation by another persona is needed.
After treatment it is recommended that the patient sleep or rest. The patient must be sure not to rub or injure the eye since a corneal flap has been carefully put back in its original position. Contact your ophthalmologist if you have any excessive pain or develop any complications that were discussed with you about your surgery.

Monovision offers an alternative solution, either through contact lenses or refractive surgery. Monovision eliminates the requirement of dual glasses by correcting individual eyes to different focal lengths. Normally, the dominant eye is focused for distance and the non-dominate eye is corrected for viewing closer images. Monovision works by tricking the brain into believing that the contact lens is a part of the actual eye. Depending on their lifestyle and needs, patients can choose whether to correct both eyes for distance or blend their vision by having one eye corrected for distance sight and the other for near sight. As the crystalline lenses of the eyes age, their capacity to focus (accommodate) at different distances naturally weakens and is sometimes lost. The result is a treatable condition known as Presbyopia, usually developing between the ages of 40-50. Presbyopia patients are unable to maintain focus on either near or distant objects and need glasses to help accommodate for their weaker focal length. The most common course of correction for Presbyopia is through bifocal glasses or through separate glasses with varying focal lengths to accommodate for both near and distance vision. Monovision offers an alternative solution, either through contact lenses or refractive surgery. Monovision eliminates the requirement of dual glasses by correcting individual eyes to different focal lengths. Normally, the dominant eye is focused for distance and the non-dominate eye is corrected for viewing closer images. Monovision works by tricking the brain into believing that the contact lens is a part of the actual eye. Depending on their lifestyle and needs, patients can choose whether to correct both eyes for distance or blend their vision by having one eye corrected for distance sight and the other for near sight. Eye dominance is established by which eye works slightly harder than the other and is very simple to determine. To verify which eye is dominant: keep both eyes open, hold out a thumb at eye level and block either an object or a word in the line of site with the thumb. Close one eye and then close the other. The dominant eye is the one that did not see the object or word. Nearsighted adults, who use glasses to help see distant images, tend to be capable of up-close reading without glasses. By giving them 20/20 distance vision, they will lose their ability to adjust focal lengths and focus. These individuals will then likely need glasses for reading. It is important to realize that Monovision is meant to give you functional, not perfect, vision. LASIK with Monovision is a breakthrough technology for Presbyopia treatment. Instead of relying on glasses or contacts to accomplish Monovision, surgeons strive to permanently achieve the same results through a customized LASIK procedure. A great option for undecided LASIK with Monovision candidates is to consult with eyecare professionals and sample contact lenses that will deliver comparable results to the surgical process. Keep in mind that the brain will need an adjustment period to relearn which eye is ideal for different tasks. To ensure the ultimate results, LASIK surgeons will always include a discussion of Monovision during pre-surgical consultations of candidates over the age of 40 who use bifocals or reading glasses to treat their Presbyopia. Patients over 50 who choose not to include Monovision in their LASIK procedure will likely need reading glasses post-LASIK surgery. Lens Replacement Surgery is a possible alternative for patients over 50 who want to correct both near and distance vision, without a dependence on glasses or incorporating Monovision. For more information, speak with your eye-care professional.

As with any operation, with lasik eye surgery there is a post surgical recovery period.  During this time, the healing and vision improvement takes place.  If you are considering lasik surgery, you probably have questions about what life is like immediately following lasik surgery.  Questions such as how fast will my vision improve?  How quickly can I go back to work?  How much pain will I be in?   Will I continue to require corrective lenses following surgery?  While these questions should be thoroughly discussed with your eyecare provider, this article will briefly review these common concerns regarding post lasik recovery.

With regard to discomfort or pain following lasik surgery, after the procedure you may feel a burning sensation or a gritty sort of uncomfortable feeling.  This sensation might last for a few hours  post surgery.  If you are able to take a nap following your surgery, the feeling should subside and you should feel better once you awaken.

Most lasik patients are able to return to work the day following their surgery.  Additional time off of work is ususally not needed, but if you are able it would not be a bad idea to relax and focus on recovery for a couple of days after treatment.

Clearly, the goal of having vision correction surgery such as lasik is to decrease or end your reliance upon eyeglasses or contacts.  That does not mean, however, that someone who has undergone lasik surgery can immediately throw away their glasses or be rid of their contact lenses forever.  It is quite possible that you will continue to wear glasses or corrective lenses on occassion as part of your recovery following lasik.  You may find that you still need glasses in order to read or drive at night for a time following surgery.

Every individual is different, but most lasik patients notice improved vision almost immediately following surgery.  You may experience some blurred vision, problems when reading or your vision may fluctuate but this is to be expected as it takes time for your vision to stabilize.  Your doctor will be able to give you some approximate guidelines as to when you can expect your vision to be stable.

Having realistic expectations and knowing what is normal and what is cause for concern after your lasik surgery is important.  Your doctor will give you thorough instructions for post lasik care and set additional appointments for you so your healing and vision can be monitored.  Carefully follow your doctor’s advice and raise any issues or questions you may have.

The key to a successful and safe LASIK experience lies in the surgeon performing the procedure. Doing the proper research prior to having any eye surgery will help to ensure the experience is a pleasant one for you. With all the information out there for you, choosing a LASIK surgeon with proven results has never been easier. Keep in mind that a bad eye procedure can affect your life as seriously as a bad heart surgery. After all, one result of bad eye surgery could be blindness. That is why it is so very important to choose the best eye surgeon available in your area.

The following are some suggestions when conducting your search for a highly trained and talented LASIK surgeon:

· Advertisements, academic medical centers and the American College of Surgeons are great places to start. Many refractive surgery centers are advertising in newspapers, on the radio, and on television. Some ads are more informative than others, and some tout extremely good pricing. While these sources may be a good starting point, an ad or a procedure price should certainly NOT be your only criterion in choosing a surgeon. And watch out for misleading advertising claims. If a surgeon claims to be using a laser for 15 years, do not accept that as he is probably talking about another type of laser or procedure since LASIK has not even been around that long.

· Referrals from your regular eye care professional are a good way to find a great surgeon. Tell him or her that you want the LASIK surgeon in your area with the best reputation.

· Call refractive surgery centers in your area and hear what they have to say. The ones proclaiming the lowest prices are the ones to watch out for.

After finding a LASIK surgeon, make an appointment for a consultation. The Council for Refractive provides a list of 50 questions to ask your surgeon. A few are listed below:

· How long have you been performing refractive surgery procedures?

· How many have you done? (Should be more than 500)

· What percentage of your patients have achieved 20/20 vision or better? (Around 65% is the norm; ask for proof if a higher number is stated)

· Have you ever had malpractice insurance coverage denied?

· Have you ever had your license to practice refractive surgery revoked, suspended, or restricted?

· Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

· May I speak to some of your former patients and hear about their experience with you?

With state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment and techniques, Eye Care Specialists of Florida provides comprehensive eye care, from routine examination for glasses or contact lenses to highly specialized procedures for cataracts to eye conditions such as glaucoma. We are located in Kissimmee with a commitment to providing the highest quality care to our patients. LASIK is the most commonly performed refractive surgery procedure. You may hear people calling it “LASIX,” but the name is actually short for “laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis.” Why is it so popular? LASIK has advantages over other procedures, including a relative lack of pain afterward and the fact that good vision is usually achieved by the very next day. An instrument called a microkeratome is used in LASIK eye surgery to create a thin, circular flap in the cornea. Another, newer way of making the flap is with a laser. The surgeon folds the flap back out of the way, then removes some corneal tissue underneath using an excimer laser. The excimer laser uses a cool ultraviolet light beam to precisely remove (”ablate”) very tiny bits of tissue from the cornea to reshape it. When the cornea is reshaped in the right way, it works better to focus light into the eye and onto the retina, providing clearer vision than before. The flap is then laid back in place, covering the area where the corneal tissue was removed.Lasik eye surgery florida Both nearsighted and farsighted people can benefit from the LASIK procedure. With nearsighted people, the goal is to flatten the too-steep cornea; with farsighted people, a steeper cornea is desired. While this is not widely recognized by consumers, excimer lasers also can correct astigmatism by smoothing an irregular cornea into a more normal shape.

If you wear glasses or contact lenses, chances are you have thought or even looked into LASIK eye surgery. This surgery has taken the optical world by storm, it promises to let you leave your glasses or contacts in the past, or at least to lessen your dependence upon them. As the procedure becomes more popular, it is easier to find a doctor or an office that will perform the surgery for you.

Before you decide that LASIK surgery is right for you, make sure that you know all the facts, and how they might affect you. LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) is a surgery that changes the cornea shape, this is a permanent change that is made using a laser and a special knife. This is what allows you to become fewer dependants upon your glasses or contact lenses as most wearers suffer from a misshaped cornea.

Before the surgery, you will need to consult with an optometrist that specializes in LASIK surgery. The doctor will conduct a number of tests to determine if you are a good candidate for the surgery. If it is determined that you are a good candidate, the doctor should be able to tell you how much of a change in your eyesight can be expected after the surgery.

Several things are taken into consideration when a doctor evaluates you for the surgery. For example, if you have had a change in your eyewear prescription within the last year, LASIK is not for you. The eyes need to be stable for at least a year, preferably longer to ensure that they aren’t going to change shape on their own. If you have a history of certain diseases, LASIK may not be the right choice for you either. Having a history of Glaucoma, Herpes, eye injuries or thin corneas, are a few of the reasons that would disqualify you for the surgery.

Now you have been checked out by a doctor and are ready to proceed on your road to a future without glasses. It is important that you know what to expect during the surgery as well.

When you go in for the actual surgery, you will be placed in a reclined position. You will receive a numbing solution in the eye that is being operated on. The doctor will use a special speculum to hold the eyelid open and a large machine with a microscope will be aimed at the eye. A ring will be applied to your eye with hard pressure, this is to create a suction affect on the cornea, the doctor will the use a knife to cut the part of the cornea that needs to be reshaped. Your vision will be blurred during this part of the procedure.

After the cornea has been cut the ring is removed, at this point, you will be able to see, although this will come and go during the rest of the LASIK surgery. This is the part of the operation where the laser is introduced, two actually. The first laser is for your eye to focus on; the second is the working laser.

The machine with the microscope is also attached to a computer. This computer is what controls the amount of strength that is available in the laser. Before the procedure, the surgeon will have programmed how much tissue needs to be removed from the cornea, based on the tests in the first visit. The computer then, stops the laser when the exact amount of tissue has been removed.

Your surgery is essentially done! There are a few rules for after the procedure that your doctor will go over with you, but most people are back to daily life within a couple of days.

LASIK is an acronym for Laser In-Situ Keratomileusis. It’s a world-wide procedure that’s:

• Popular

• Quick

• Painless

• Effective

In fact, “miraculous” would not be too strong a term to describe its effectiveness. If you’re considering whether to have it done, but you’ve read or heard some negative stories about it, please put them on hold for a minute and read this article.

What is LASIK?

It’s a type of eye surgery that uses an extremely precise laser to modify the surface of the cornea (the front part of the eyeball, the white part).

Facts about lasers

• There are many types of lasers, all man-made for specific purposes.

• Lasers are divided into 4 classes according to their potential for causing biological damage. All lasers come labeled as to their class. Class I lasers pose no hazard and class IV lasers are a fire hazard and skin hazard and must be carefully controlled.

• Lasers used in eye surgery are called excimer lasers

• Excimer lasers are cool. They emit no heat; just a highly focused ray of ultraviolet light that penetrates only a microscopic depth into the outer layer of corneal tissue

• Excimer lasers are so precise they can focus a beam that’s only 0.25 microns wide. Compare that to a human hair, which is typically 50 microns wide! The laser could chip away at the width of the hair in half-a-percent increments.

• Eye surgeons buy or lease complex units that contain a specific laser along with a computer, patient bed, microscope, and other components for the surgeon to use

How is LASIK done?

• Only on good candidates

• First there’s a detailed eye examination to see if you’d be a good candidate. A good eye surgeon performs LASIK only on good candidates, as opposed to some eye facilities that make money on their sheer numbers of patients, and work on a “low cost, minimal service, cheap equipment, no follow-up” basis.

If you’re considering a LASIK treatment, check out several eye surgeons and choose one who’s selective in choosing LASIK patients.

What makes a good candidate

• Your present vision must be within a certain range of clarity

• Your corneas must have a certain minimum thickness

• Your pupil diameter should be under a certain width

• You’re not pregnant or trying to become so

• You have no severe heart problems, no auto-immune disease, and no eye disease

• You’re not diabetic

The LASIK surgeon will use a number of sophisticated tools to exactly measure your vision and calculate exactly what correction it needs.

The procedure itself

• Your eyes will be numbed with anesthetic eye drops

• You’ll lie down on a comfortable bed that will be rotated to place your head beneath the laser. An eye speculum is placed against the eyelids of the eye to be worked on, to keep it open. You don’t have to struggle with keeping your own open

• Your eye surgeon will treat one eye at a time, placing a shield over the other one. He’ll calibrate the laser for each eye because our two eyes are not necessarily identical in shape

• Using a hand-held device called a microkeratome, in combination with a small suction cup, the surgeon will make a small round flap on the outer surface of your cornea, and gently fold it back out of the way.

• While you look at a red light, the laser is directed at the tissue exposed by the flap being folded back, for somewhere between 10 and 20 seconds. The laser vaporizes tiny amounts of excess corneal tissue that have been impairing your eyesight.

• The surgeon replaces that little flap and applies a bit of antibiotic ointment to its edges. Immediately, it starts healing itself with no stitches or bandages required.

There’s no pain at all during this procedure. The worst you might feel is the urge to close your eyes against having somebody touch them. So a little self-control is needed to hold yourself still, but the eye speculum does the work of keeping your eyes open.

Recovery period

• As soon as you’re back in the preparation room, you’ll notice that you can see more clearly. There might be some temporary blurriness from the antibiotic.

• You’ll be given an eye shield and asked to keep it on until the following day.

• You’ll be given some things to put in your eyes over the next few days:

• Moisturizing drops for day time

• Antibiotic drops

• Moisturizing gel for night time

• There’s no pain, itching, or swelling

• There might be a small amount of temporary redness and sensitivity to light

• There’ll be a follow-up appointment the next day and at progressively lengthening intervals for a year.

Within a month, most people are completely healed and their vision stabilized. You’ll notice a dramatic improvement in your eyesight after LASIK.

Interview some eye surgeons

If you’re apprehensive about having LASIK, you should interview several different eye surgeons. Any good eye surgeon will be glad to take some time with you and listen to your concerns. You could write down all your questions and check them off as the surgeon answers them satisfactorily.

Don’t be shy about doing this because all good LASIK surgeons know that the idea of having a laser focused on your eyes can be alarming at first. If you find that the surgeon you’re consulting with isn’t really listening to you, move on. Find a LASIK surgeon you feel you can trust.

LASIK (Laser-Assisted in SItu Keratomileusis) is a safe and effective procedure approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use on adults aged 18 or older. However, it is not approved for children, and it is not likely to be in the near future. To understand why, let us briefly talk first about how the eye works and how LASIK corrects it.

How the Eye Works

The eye is a like a camera, with a pair of lenses, one the lens, the other the cornea, that focus light reflected from objects onto the back of the eye, the retina. At the retina, the light is interpreted and transformed into a signal that is transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve.

How LASIK Works

In people with vision defects like hyperopia (farsightedness) or myopia (nearsightedness), the light from objects focuses not on the retina, but either in front of or behind the retina. To correct this problem, LASIK reshapes the cornea to help the light focus on the surface of the retina.

LASIK Concerns in Children

In the past, there were many concerns about LASIK in children. One was that it was impossible to get an accurate assessment of a child’s vision at a young age. However, new technology allows ophthalmologists to read a child’s eyes directly, ensuring complete accuracy.

Another concern is that children would not be able to sit still or keep their eyes open long enough for the procedure to be completed. However, new technology has made LASIK a very quick procedure, so that moderately well-behaved children should be able to have the procedure done. In addition, there is always the option of sedating children while the procedure is done.

Others might express concern that long-term effects of LASIK are not yet known. This is true, but LASIK results have proven very stable since the first procedures conducted in 1988, so there is little reason for this to be a concern for children any more than for adults.

The main reason why LASIK should not be done on children is that their vision is not yet stable. Children often experience significant changes in their vision, since all infants suffer from mild hyperopia, which fades, while myopia often does not set in until children enter their teens or even later. The changing vision of children is related to changes in their cornea. If children have LASIK done, they will most likely need it done a second time later on. In addition, no good data exists on the effects of reshaping on still-growing corneas.

Exceptions

In some situations, however, LASIK surgery on children may be justified. One of the main situations where this may be the case is amblyopia, or lazy eye. In this condition, a child has one eye that is very much weaker than the other. Because the weaker eye is unable to focus on the objects that the stronger eye is looking at, it wanders. Treatment options for this in the past have included contacts, glasses, eye drops, or eye patches, many of which have significant side effects of their own. LASIK may be able to help children with this problem because it can make the eyes closer to one another, and because of the complications of other procedures, LASIK may actually prove to have the best risk-benefit profile.

 

Over the past 10-15 years, there have been tremendous advances in vision correction technology. While LASIK surgery was once considered a scary and unknown procedure, it is now very commonplace and is clearly the “wave of the future” for vision correction.

 

Before deciding to undergo this procedure, it is important to arm yourself with the facts about LASIK. Every eye and every eye condition is somewhat unique, so you need to choose the procedure that works best for your individual situation.

 

All LASIK surgery is performed using an excimer laser, an ultraviolet laser that reshapes the surface of your cornea and alters your eye’s focal length.

 

Excimer lasers don’t generate heat. This helps prevent damage to your cornea. They are extremely precise – they get rid of 1/4000 mm of corneal tissue with each pulse of light. To give you a better picture of what this means, it would take about 200 pulses of the laser beam to cut through a typical piece of human hair.



Which Type of LASIK Works Best?

 

Different types of excimer lasers vary in size, shape, and nature. These variations determine how precise they are. The more precise the laser, the easier it will be for the surgeon to effectively reshape your cornea.

 

Everyone’s eyes have unique dimensions. Therefore, your choice of laser largely depends on which one is the best fit for your eyes.

 

It is important to make sure that the zone where the laser reshapes your eye is at least as large as your pupil gets in low light conditions. This will help you avoid night vision problems such as glare and halos.



Types of Excimer Lasers

 

The following are some of the most commonly used excimer lasers for LASIK surgery:

· Slit scanning lasers: These use small beams connected to a revolving machine containing slit holes that vary in size. The laser moves through these holes, creating a gradual and smooth correctional area.

· Spot scanning lasers: These are effective for creating customized reshapings. They use a laser with a very small diameter which gets scanned across the cornea.

· Wavefront-guided lasers: This is the next generation of LASIK technology. The entire procedure is done by laser.

 

Previously, surgeons would use a blade to cut a flap in the cornea. This flap would get folded back to allow the excimer laser to operate. Wavefront technology uses a computerized laser to track your eye’s abnormalities and then creates a 3D map of your cornea’s shape. This helps allow for greater precision during the rest of the procedure.



Advantages of Wavefront LASIK

· Reduces the risk involved with flap creation.

· Creates the flap quicker than with a manual blade.

· More versatile – can be used with people who have thin corneas, severe astigmatism, and other more unusual eye irregularities.

· Quicker healing process and shorter recovery time.

· Can correct halos, glare, and blurry vision as well as near-sightedness, far-sightedness, and astigmatism.

· A greater percentage of wavefront patients have their vision return to 20/20 than patients who don’t use this procedure.

It would be great to think that everyone was eligible for some form of vision correction procedure. Remember how wonderful it was as a child not to have to put on glasses before you could see to do just about anything? But every surgery has its own set of possible side effects based on the procedure itself, the patients’ health and, well, just about everything else. And LASIK is no different.

When it comes to the size of your pupils and how that affects your ability to have LASIK vision correction, it is actually rather interesting. Your pupils grow bigger and smaller based on the amount of light necessary for the moment. When you walk outside on a sunny day, your pupils get smaller because they don’t need to allow as much light inside your eye.

If you find yourself in a dark room, and could actually see the size of your pupils, you’d notice that they were very large and open to catch as much light as possible. That’s why it takes a few seconds for your eyes to adjust to the dark – the pupils have to open up.

When the size of your naturally dilated pupils are large, having LASIK can result in anything from just a minor annoyance to an inability to drive at night. Here’s why. The iris tells the pupils how much or little light is necessary. The pupils open or close accordingly and the light moves through the cornea to the retina. With LASIK, small amounts of tissue are removed from the center of the cornea and that is what adversely affects how the light is received through the cornea to the retina. One possible result is that you see a starburst pattern around lights at night. That makes it very difficult to drive, especially with heavy oncoming traffic. The headlights become almost blinding.

LASIK on large pupils could also result in seeing halos around lights, primarily at night. Again, this makes driving at night very difficult.

New technology such as the wavefront mapping system may allow for larger areas of ablation (tissue removal) during the laser vision correction procedure. The best way to know for sure if you’re a good LASIK candidate is to consult an experienced eye doctor (ophthalmologist) that uses state-of-the-art technology and has a fully trained staff. That way you’ll know for sure what laser vision correction procedure is just right for you.

The only stars you see at night should be the ones up in the sky, not the ones on every light you see.

If you would like more information on LASIK vision correction in Orange County, California and the surrounding area, please visit Khanna Institute of LASIK & Refractive Surgery today.