Laser vision correction is a painless procedure that eliminates or reduces the need for glasses or contact lenses to see objects clearly. Patients are usually able see more clearly within 24 hours of the procedure. Recent innovations allow many patients who were previously not candidates for laser vision correction to benefit from this life changing procedure.
Laser eye surgery or laser corneal sculpting is a surgical procedure that uses a laser to reshape the surface of the eye. This is done to improve or correct myopia (short sightedness), hypermetropia (long sightedness) and astigmatism (uneven curvature of the eye’s surface).
Benefits of laser vision correction:
- Eliminates your dependence on glasses or contact lenses
- Increases your eye focusing power
- Allows freedom to play water sports
- Seeing naturally
- Appearance
- Removes risks of long term contact lens use
Treatment
LASIK (Laser Assisted In-Situ Keratomileusis)
The most popular way to correct vision is with a procedure called LASIK (laser assisted in-situ keratomileusis), which uses a laser to change the curvature of the cornea (outer window of the eye). This allows light entering the eye to be properly focused onto the retina accurately to enable clarity of vision.
LASIK has quickly become the procedure of choice for most patients because they recover quickly and have minimal chances of side effects and complications than with other methods of vision correction.
With modern femtosecond technology no blade is required. The surgeon creates a flap using the femtosecond laser to reach the inner layers of the cornea. A second laser then reshapes the corneal layer beneath, the flap is repositioned to its original anatomy, and the procedure is completed.
Most LASIK patients notice a significant improvement in their vision soon after surgery. LASIK removes tissue within the cornea to treat low to high levels of near sightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.
PRK (Photo-Refractive Keratectomy)
PRK is another type of refractive surgery to correct myopia (near sightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and astigmatism.
The main difference between PRK and LASIK, is that in LASIK surgery a thin hinged flap is created on the cornea to access the treatment area whereas in PRK, the cornea’s epithelial layer is removed to expose the treatment area and no flap is created.
Some patients are better candidates for LASIK, and others are better candidates for PRK. This will be assessed in your consultation with Dr. Gupta. In either case, the procedure usually takes less than fifteen minutes from beginning to end.
RLE (Refractive Lens Exchange)
RLE is similar to surgery done for cataracts and involves making a small incision at the edge of the cornea to remove the natural lens of the eye and replace it with an artificial intraocular lens (IOL).
Also called PRELEX, clear lens exchange (CLE), clear lens extraction (CLE), and refractive lens replacement (RLR), RLE is used to correct extreme farsightedness or near sightedness. It may be appropriate for people with thin corneas, dry eyes, or other minor problems of the cornea.
The artificial intraocular lens is a permanent replacement for your natural lens and is designed to last the rest of your life.
Because IOLs are not affected by age-related changes, there is minimal risk of loss of corrective effect or deterioration of vision over time.
ICL (Implantable Collamer Lens)
The Visian ICL (Implantable Collamer Lens) is a posterior chamber phakic IOL, meaning it is positioned behind the iris and in front of your natural lens. It can be used for patients requiring higher corrections as an alternative to LASIK or PRK.
ICL procedure is a short 15 minute day procedure performed under local anaesthetic. The lens is expertly folded and loaded into a small cartridge. The surgeon creates a micro-opening to insert the lens which upon insertion gently unfolds in the eye. The patient then experiences an immediate improvement in vision quality.
Corneal Inlays
Corneal inlays are small lenses inserted into the cornea to reshape the front surface of the eye to improve vision. In fact, some of these devices resemble very small contact lenses.
The primary use of current corneal inlays is to improve near vision and reduce the need for reading glasses in older adults who have presbyopia.
AK (Astigmatic Keratotomy)
The cornea of people who have astigmatism is bulged into a cone-like shape. Astigmatic keratotomy eye surgery corrects astigmatism by making one or two incisions at the steepest part of the cornea. These incisions cause the cornea to relax and take a more rounded shape, thereby reducing astigmatism.
Astigmatic keratotomy eye surgery is a safe and effective way to correct astigmatism and it’s often used in conjunction with other vision correction procedures.