Lasik - Pre-Op Decisions

Media and print adds make it sound quite simple, and in many aspects it is, however the patient is not without some decision in the process (at least in my case). There are multiple different laser types with different characteristics that make them applicable to certain eye types and conditions. The particular location I visited had three laser options.

As I said before the primary considerations are required prescription, thickness of the cornea, and size of the pupil. The lasers can be divided basically by age of technology and diameter, the oldest technology having a smaller maximum diameter. The newest having the largest maximum diameter and a variety of other benefits.

In my particular case, the size of my pupil was slightly larger than the middle size laser. At such, I was given two options, the middle or largest size laser. The smaller laser, the older of technologies, simply would not cover the area needed to provide full correction.

Option one, the middle sized laser, and allow the doctor to do a blending effect where the laser didn't cover. This option would still provide 20/20 or nearly 20/20 vision. The drawback to the blending method is that some lighting conditions may be more likely to cause glare or a halo effect.

Option two, was to use the largest of laser sizes. This also happens to be the newest of technologies, referred to as wavefront. In addition to being large enough to cover the full area of the pupil, if I understood correctly, this method also has the ability perform the surgery based upon the topographical data from optical scans. According to the physicians this provides the most accurate vision correction since it accounts for the unique contours and shape of the eye. With this method, 20/20 vision is all but guaranteed and the chances of glare and halo are almost eliminated.

This particular facility also offered a guarantee on their work such that any future vision corrects would be performed free and with an equivalent laser by whatever the current standard is.

Based on the information and the test results, and because these are my eyes and I am, of course, not willing to accept anything less than the best, I chose the laser using wavefront technology.

As a note, I would recommend if your employer has a flexible spending plan to use that. The tax savings allowed me to get the wavefront for what it would have cost for the mid-sized laser without the plan.