Are You a Candidate for LASIK?

LASIK is a laser based vision correction procedure where your vision can be corrected to such a degree that you no longer need corrective lenses. And the amazing part is that it all happens in just a few minutes!

Think about that - no more glasses or contact lenses. What a relief - never having to hunt for your glasses or fool around with contacts. LASIK eye surgery can put a quick end to all that.

But LASIK eye surgery isn't right for everyone. You need to meet certain requirements before submitting to LASIK eye surgery.

Here are a few of the guidelines used in determining if LASIK is a good choice for you -

• You should be over 18 years of age.
• Your corneas must be healthy.
• You should not have had a significant change in your lens prescription in the last 12 months.
• Women should not be pregnant or breastfeeding.
• You should be in good general health.

If you are nearsighted, LASIK eye surgery can work for you. Being nearsighted means that you can see things that are close to you, but you have trouble seeing things at a distance. For example, you have no problem reading a book or newspaper, but a traffic sign that's off in the distance may be hard to read. As you get closer to the sign, it comes into focus and you can read it without difficulty.

In the case of nearsightedness, the LASIK procedure reshapes your cornea so that distant objects come back into focus for you, while your ability to focus on nearby objects remains largely unchanged. It's most likely that your vision will improve to such an extent that any lens requirement associated with your driver's license will no longer be needed.

If you're farsighted, that means that you can see things at a distance and they're in proper focus, but you can't focus on nearby objects. In many cases, farsightedness becomes more pronounced as you grow older, since it's normally considered a natural part of the aging process. You may initially notice that reading has become more difficult since the words are out of focus. You find that if you hold your book at arm's length, the words come back into focus. As the condition worsens, you'll discover that your arms are no longer able to solve the focus problem, so you need reading glasses.

Farsightedness was previously not treated with LASIK, since reshaping the cornea to focus on nearby objects came at the expense of losing the capability to focus on distant objects. However, a new procedure has been developed that enables people that are farsighted to benefit from LASIK eye surgery. A detailed eye exam will determine which of your eyes is actually best suited to focus on distant objects and that eye is left as-is. The other eye then receives the LASIK procedure to enable you to focus on close objects. In essence, one eye focuses on nearby objects while the other eye focuses on distant object. As your brain processes the images from both eyes, the images are merged. The end result is that you can now see both near and far in proper focus. In almost all cases, you'll be able to say 'Good Bye' to those bothersome reading glasses!