Laser eye surgery is a widely implemented procedure in today’s time. People all around the world use laser eye procedure to get the perfect vision, and more importantly to get rid of contact lenses and prescription spectacles. And why wouldn’t they? Glasses and contact lenses are too much to handle. But what most people do not know is that there are different types of laser eye surgeries. That’s right. LASIK is not the only type of laser eye operation.
All the procedure have their own pros and cons and are chosen by surgeons based on the patient’s eligibility. The eligibility of a potential laser eye surgery patient is determined by the doctors through a series of various tests that are intended to determine whether a person can undergo the surgery or not.
Down below are the various forms of laser eye surgeries mentioned along with their pros and cons. Have a look!
PRK
Photorefractive Keratectomy, also termed as PRK, was the very first type of laser eyes surgery to be used for operating on people on a mass scale. the PRK is basically a corrective laser surgery for the eyes that is usually used on people who suffer from myopia, also known as nearsightedness, hyperopia, also known as farsightedness, and of course, astigmatism, which is basically an anomaly in the shape of the cornea which causes the light to be reflected in an improper fashion.
The surgical procedure is simple. The outer layer of the cornea, also known as epithelium is slowly removed with the aid from a manual surgical instrument. The surgeon then proceeds and uses the excimer laser so as to reshape the epithelium/cornea and thus rectify the error in the patient’s vision.
As far as the efficiency of the PRK laser eye surgery is concerned, it is best suited for the people who have an anomaly in the shape of their cornea, that is, people having an uneven surface of the epithelium. It is also recommended for people who usually have a dry eye and even people who take lots of hits on the eyes such as MMA fights and boxer whose profession forces them to trade blows in the eyes. It is also important that you are eligible for the laser eye surgery. The eligibility criteria are set by the eye surgeon.
The PRK eye surgery has only one major disadvantage, that is, its recovery time. The recovery time involved in the case of a PRK surgery is huge. The cells on the outermost layer of the epithelium take more than a week to grow back completely. Overall, the person undergone a PRK laser eye operation would need at least 6 weeks to get a crystal clear vision, provided there are no additional complications.
LASIK
LASIK is without any doubt the most popular and famous laser eye surgical procedure. It is the most used type of laser eye surgery as well. When anyone thinks of laser eye surgery, they think of LASIK. The LASIK eye surgery is the most preferred form of laser eye surgery for a reason as well. The surgery is used to treat eyes with hyperopia or farsightedness, myopia or nearsightedness, and also astigmatism, that is, the anomaly in the curvature of the epithelium or the cornea.
The surgical procedure of LASIK is quite simple. The surgeon begins by cutting a small flap on the corneal surface in a way that it remains attached to the cornea like a hinge. The surgeon then folds back the flap and the optic lasers are then used to manually reshape the structure of the epithelium by getting rid of unwanted epithelial corneal tissue. Thus the surgeon basically tries to rectify the error that causes abnormal vision.
For people who wish to get rid of their glasses or contact lenses, LASIK is definitely without any doubt an awesome choice. It is relatively safer and involves a quick recovery period. However, like any other surgical procedure, one needs to be sure that he/she is eligible for the LASIK operation. For example, a person trying to undergo the LASIK eye surgical procedure should have a thick epithelium in order to be eligible for the operation. This is so that the person’s cornea can tolerate the pressure that is generated from the cutting tool. A decent amount of epithelial thickness is preferred as since the portion of the cornea that would be cut is to be used a flap. A thin cornea would mean that might be a slight chance of the flap being cut off due to pressure. Such an incident might lead to unwanted complications.
As far as the disadvantages of LASIK are concerned, there are almost none. The operation is extremely safe and the success rate is the same way. The only downside is that the LASIK eye surgery is very complicated in nature. The flap that is created may lead to certain flap-related anomalies and complications.
SMILE
SMILE is the latest surgical eye procedure that is there at this moment. It is highly efficient as well as effective. SMILE came into the international medical scenario in the year 2012 and was eventually sanctioned in that year as an eligible surgical laser procedure. The surgical procedure of the SMILE operation is not complicated at all. The surgeon uses a single laser beam for the purpose of the surgery. This is unlike the other two laser eye procedure mentioned above. Another thing to notice is that SMILE does not use an excimer laser beam for the surgery. However, the most significant difference is that instead of cutting open a gap in the cornea or creating a flap-like structure, SMILE simply uses incision technology to ender the cornea and rectify the vision by vaporizing unwanted corneal tissue.
The above-mentioned types of laser eye surgeries are widely used procedure all over the world. They have their share of pros and cons but on an overall scenario, the success rate of laser eye surgeries is really high. However, it is important that you choose your surgeon carefully and pay close attention to your eligibility tests. Hope the information helped.
CONTOURA VISION
Contoura Vision has been a game changer since it has been introduced. It provides all the advantages of SMILE and LASIK procedures eliminating the disadvantages of both. Contoura Vision has benn approved by US-FDA and is the safest laser eye surgery available in the world today. Also, whereas procedures such as SMILE, LASIK, PRK just correct your spectacle power, Contoura Vision goes one step ahead correcting your corneal irregularities while working on the visual axis. These provide you with much sharper vision, sometimes referred to as super human vision, unmatched by any LASIK, SMILE, PRK procedures.