The Lasik surgery is a brand new surgery designed to help people improve their vision. During the surgery, patients are completely conscious. The surgery can be summarized as follows: the first part of the surgery consists of the actual cutting off a flap into the cornea by the practitioner either by using a dedicated knife called microkeratome or a dedicated laser. The second part of the surgery involves leaving the pivot on one side of this flap in order to removed and replaced later on.

During the process of removing the flap, the practitioner remodels the stroma, the middle part of the cornea. This is achieved by the means of an excimer laser used to remove supplementary and unnecessary tissue without hurting essential parts.

The results

Many patients claim that their vision was improved straight away after the surgery while others recorded an improvement after some time, not immediately after the surgery.

Lucky patients recorded an improvement factor of 20/20 or even better after the surgery while others recorded worse results below 20/40. Although 20/40 is an acceptable result especially some people can drive with this level of vision but this level is definitely not the perfect case. These people still wear eyeglass or contact to correct their vision even if their prescription was lower than before.

Moreover, a regression phenomenon was recorded on some patients after the surgery. This clearly shows that their vision is gradually getting worse and worse. In this case, surgeons often rely on enhancements to improve the vision.

Presbyopia

Elder patients, those over forties may still find useful to wear eyeglasses or bifocals to read newspapers even if they have undergone the surgery. The reason of this is presbyopia which is experienced at the age ranging from 38 to 42. Presbyopia is characterized by the brittleness of the distance vision therefore making it very difficult to perceive objects which are closer to the viewer.

Presbyopia occurs with ageing and can be improved with eyeglasses. It is characterized by the loss of the ability to dynamically alter the target in order to see closer objects. This phenomenon is mistakenly referred to as farsightedness. However these two abnormalities are different from each other. Indeed, presbyopia is noticed when the lens of the eye fails to be flexible whereas farsightedness is noticed after a distorted eyeball. This results in an incorrect bending of the light after entering into the eye.

With the advent of the Lasik it is now possible to cure the farsightedness abnormality because of the change of the form of the cornea required by the surgery. Unfortunately at the moment, presbyopia cannot be cured by Lasik although recent studies are focusing on the possibility to use the surgery to cure the abnormality.

Astigmatism

This abnormality can be a side effect of the surgery. It is characterized by the incorrect approximation of the corneal surface which in turn brings about the incorrect centering of the laser correction. Astigmatism is reported to lead to strange phenomena such as blurred vision, double vision and ghost images. Eyeglasses and an additional surgery may be a way around these problems.

The Bottom Line

Realistic expectations are required for this surgery. If someone expects a perfect vision after the surgery, he or she may be disappointed as the surgery is not perfect itself. Also, patients should also take into account possible complications following the surgery even if these are very unlikely.

Another problem is the regression phenomenon which was recorded in some patients after the surgery. Again this can be cured by either eyeglasses or an additional surgery.

Briefly speaking, you should remember that some sizes of eyesight are a common part of the ageing process. So you should bear in mind that you may still need your old glasses after the surgery just in case. Throughout this article we have shown some examples especially elder people undergoing the surgery and later on contracting presbyopia. Presbyopia is a serious disease that needs to be addressed rather sooner than later.