At this day and age the modern technological advancements have made huge breakthroughs in the fields of science and have given a lot of hope to people who have been suffering through disabilities. Another technological advancement that has gained a lot of its grounds at a very rapid rate is the laser therapy of the eyes. The laser therapy is known as LASIK procedure, which is also known as Laser Assisted in situ Keratomileusis. In this article we are going to discuss the different aspects of this procedure, such as what should be known before getting this procedure done, how this procedure is performed and what happens after the procedure and what are the things that must be asked from a doctor about this procedure.
In this procedure the shape of the cornea is being fixed because the abnormal curvature of the cornea affects the vision of an individual and with this procedure the curvature of the cornea is being fixed with the help of laser with the help of the excimer laser. It is important to make a note here that the cornea is a clear curvature that is present in front of the eye and increased abnormality in the curvature of the cornea can also lead to blindness. Since the sense of sight is a very vital sense among other senses, there are a lot of questions that hover the mind of the people who want to go through this procedure to get rid of their contact lenses or distance or near vision glasses. It is really very important that the individuals who are planning to go through this procedure must clear all the questions that are in their mind so that they are comfortable when they are going through the procedure.

There must be a reason that you wanted to go through this procedure and that reason might be a very low eyesight to see at either distance or near or both and with wearing the high powered glasses there are individuals who suffer from the problems of headaches or the marks of spectacles on the bridge of the nose or for cosmetic reasons. According to the latest researches, it is being brought up that the cornea of the eye is being damaged when people wear extended wear contact lenses, which prevent the diffusion of oxygen through the cornea.

Let us discuss as to what makes you a poor candidate for the LASIK procedure. There are a lot of things that we will mention here that would prohibit you from undergoing this surgery and these include your career prohibiting you undergoing this surgery, expensive nature of this procedure, if you are an individual who is suffering from autoimmune diseases or other diseases such as hypertension, diabetes etc., other eye conditions and problems, if your vision is unstable for over a period of time, variation of the size of the pupil, if you have a thin cornea or are suffering from dry eyes.

Another very important thing that needs to be known here is that what are the risks and the limitations of the procedure because if you are having very high expectations from this procedure then you might not be of a right approach because the procedure might not benefit you as it has benefited the person who has persuaded you to get this done, so it is really important that you go through all the details at your level so that you can know that whether this procedure is going to be beneficial for you or not. One of the biggest risks is being over treated or under treated and due to under treatment one might have to go through another procedural session to get the defect corrected. You must remember that you go through a proper eye checkup before going through this procedure because this procedure might not be able to help you get rid of the glasses as in the case of presbyopia, which is a problem of the lens and not cornea. You must know that the results of the laser procedure might not be longer lasting and that you might need to setup another session for this procedure because the long term results of this procedure are not known. Another thing that must be in your knowledge is that one can lose more vision and that they might experience blindness. Due to this procedure one can develop severe dry eye syndrome. Apart from the chronic dry eyes, one can also develop glare, halos, starbursts etc., which can make the person totally disabled to drive at night. The vision can reduce greatly in dim light. Getting both the eyes treated at one can be very dangerous and one should not opt for that and must wait and see as to what is the result of the procedure in one eye. Another very important thing that all the patients must seek before undergoing through this procedure is that they must read the information booklet about this procedure and see as to what are the different options that they can undertake or what questions they need to ask from their doctor about this.

Now we will discuss as to what are the things that you need to take care before and after the procedure and what constitutes the procedure. Before going through the procedure, you must go through an initial evaluation by your eye physician so that it can be determined as to whether you are a good candidate or not to undergo this procedure. If you are being selected as an individual who can undergo through this procedure then you must know that you stop wearing the contact lenses and switch yourself to the glasses. The contact lenses that are being worn, change the shape of the cornea and this change persists for several weeks even one has stopped wearing the contact lenses and after stopping wearing the lens the cornea returns back to its normal shape. If you not stop wearing the contact lenses, then there would be inaccurate measurements that would have a very negative impact on the surgery and because of it the procedure will be delayed till the cornea gets back to its normal shape. It is important to have the right corneal measurements so as to determine as to how much of the corneal tissue needs to be removed. Therefore soft lenses must be stopped two weeks before initial evaluation and the hard lenses must be stopped for about four weeks before evaluation and if you are wearing gas permeable contact lenses, then you must stop wearing them for about three weeks.

Before undergoing the procedure, you must know as to what are the different eye conditions that you have been going through and what are the specific medications you are taking or you are suffering from any other diseases apart from the eye conditions so it can be known that whether you qualify for the procedure or not and it is really important that you go through all the details with your doctor so that you can be really comfortable and knowledgeable before you undergo the procedure. Another really important thing that you must know is that you should not be using any creams, lotions, makeup or perfumes because these can cause the increase in infection probability after the procedure.

The things that you should know will happen during the surgery would be that the entire procedure will not take more than 30 minutes. The equipment includes a laser machine connected with a microscope connected to the computer screen. During the procedure the doctor is going to place an anesthetic drop in the eye and the eye will be cleaned and the eyelids will be kept open with the help of an eye speculum. After that the ring will be placed on your eye and a suction will be created on the cornea and because of that the vision will go dim. After that an instrument, which is also known as microkeratome is attached to the suction ring and then the doctor will cut a flap of the cornea with the microkeratome. The microkeratome and the suction are then removed when the flap is cut and then you will be able to see but the vision might be blurred during the procedure. The corneal flap that is cut will be folded back on its hinge and then the exposed tissue will be dried.
After that the laser will be positioned on the eye and you will be asked to stare the light. This light will help you focus your eye on the light and if you are unable to focus on the light then you are not considered as a good candidate for the surgery. The laser is controlled through the computer and some of the patients reported about a smell of burning hair during the removal of the corneal tissue. After the laser vaporizes the corneal tissue the flap is placed back into the same position. A shield is placed on the eye when the procedure is being done to keep the flap in place and this shield is important to wear so as to prevent one from rubbing the eye. It will also prevent the eye from being poked and will give the time for the flap to heal.

After the surgery is done the eyes may feel the burn and itchy feeling. Since you will feel the discomfort, your doctor will prescribe you the pain killer and your vision will be blurry or hazy. Your eyes will experience light sensitivity and you must remember not to rub your eyes because you can dislodge the flap. It is better that you take good care of your eye by preventing yourself not going into any dusty environment. If you feel that the condition of your eye is not improving after two days of your procedure, then you must contact your physician and seek his help.

You must keep in touch with your doctor even after your procedure is done so that if you are going through any infection, then your doctor can prescribe you the proper medication to put in your eyes. I hope this article must have brought you good level of information on different aspects of getting the laser therapy and to outweigh the pros and cons of this procedure.

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