Tool for laser vision correction

You can expect to be in our surgery suite for around 30 minutes, but the majority of this time is spent doing preparation and aftercare. The procedure itself takes just a few painless minutes. Contact Us. Laser Vision Correction. Laser vision correction procedure. Laser vision correction can make a dramatic difference to your ability to see clearly, and significantly reduce your dependency on eyeglasses or contact lenses. The first stage of laser vision correction Your eye will be positioned under the laser, and a tool called a lid speculum is used to help keep your eyelids open.

The second stage of laser vision correction Once the corneal tissue is exposed, our specialized laser is used to reshape the cornea. The third stage of laser vision correction Once we are satisfied that the cornea has been sufficiently reshaped, the procedure draws to a close. Will I need a general anesthetic or stitches? How long does the procedure take?

Candidate For Laser Vision Correction. Lasik Vs Prk. The incision is smaller than with the LASIK procedure and refractive treatments, so that allows the new corneal shape to be maintained with less trauma and eye strain. Combined with the extremely short procedure time, the eye is undergoing substantially less stress with this method. That leads to better long-term stability. It only involves one cutting tool. By removing the excimer laser from the technique, it simplifies the procedure and that helps lower risks and complications in the long run.

The tools in question perform extremely fast pulses. This increases precision and control in the operation. To put this in context, a femto-second is a quadrillionth of a second. Light is the fastest thing in the universe, yet it can only go about 30 centimeters between the pulses of this tool.

In a full second, light can circle the globe 7 times. The surgery only takes 8 seconds. These exceedingly fast laser pulses allow the surgeon to make incredibly minute adjustments to the SMILE operation, enabling them to correct eye problems even better.

Some corneal corrective techniques can only treat a small range of underlying conditions. With lenticule extraction SMILE , however, surgeons can treat a larger range of root issues, provided that nearsightedness is the ultimate problem. It is not limited to just myopia or astigmatism. It can treat combination issues and resolve them just as effectively.

Lenticule extraction SMILE has a lot to offer prospective myopia patients, however, there is no perfect means to correct visual acuity issues. This method does have drawbacks, and they need to be discussed.

SMILE eye surgery only treats nearsightedness. A large number of vision issues can never be treated with this operation, which is probably one of the largest advantages of LASIK today. Then he or she will use a special type of cutting laser to precisely alter the curvature of your cornea. With each pulse of the laser beam, a tiny amount of corneal tissue is removed, allowing your eye surgeon to flatten the curve of your cornea or make it steeper.

Most commonly, the surgeon creates a flap in the cornea and then raises it up before reshaping the cornea. There are also variations in which a very thin flap is raised or no flap is used at all or no flap at all, is raised.

Each technique has advantages and disadvantages. Individual eye surgeons may specialize in specific types of laser eye procedures.

The differences among them are generally minor, and none are clearly better than any others. Depending on your individual circumstances and preferences, you may consider:. Photorefractive keratectomy PRK. With PRK , rather than forming a flap, the top surface epithelium is scraped away. This corneal abrasion takes three or four days to heal, resulting in moderate pain and blurred vision in the short term.

It was thought that these drawbacks were outweighed by the theoretical advantage that PRK was safer for people who are more likely to be struck in the eye — for example, those involved in contact sports, law enforcement or the military. Intraocular lenses. Corrective lenses can be surgically inserted in the eye intraocular lenses to improve vision.

This is routinely done as part of cataract surgery in which the old, cloudy natural lens is removed. Younger people with high degrees of nearsightedness that cannot be satisfactorily treated with corrective lenses also may be offered intraocular lenses.

But these are not a routine option for most people. In general, laser eye surgery is most appropriate for people who have a moderate degree of refractive error and no unusual vision problems. Your eye surgeon will ask detailed questions about your eye health and evaluate your eyes to make sure you don't have any conditions that might result in complications or poor outcomes of surgery.

These include:. Your eye surgeon will also ask detailed questions about your general health. Certain medical conditions, unrelated to your eyes, can increase the risks associated with LASIK surgery or make the outcome less predictable. If you have myopia, your vision may continue to change throughout your teenage years, or even longer, requiring periodic changes in the prescription of your glasses or contact lenses.

Certain conditions and medications — pregnancy, breastfeeding, steroid drugs — may cause temporary fluctuations in your vision. Most insurance plans consider laser eye surgery to be an elective procedure and don't cover the cost. Know what the surgery will cost you. While complications that result in a loss of vision are rare, certain side effects, particularly dry eyes and temporary visual disturbances, are fairly common.

But these usually resolve after a few weeks or months, and very few people consider them to be a long-term problem. By their early to mids, all adults lose some ability to focus on nearby objects presbyopia , which results in difficulty reading small print or doing close-up tasks. One possible benefit of having been nearsighted most of your life is that this condition actually compensates for the presbyopia that inevitability develops as you get older.

A nearsighted eye will focus near objects by itself without reading glasses. LASIK surgery removes this near focus because the nearsightedness has been corrected. Most experts agree that your surgeon's skill and experience, and an accurate evaluation of whether you're a suitable LASIK candidate , are far more critical factors affecting final LASIK outcomes than subtle differences between excimer lasers.

The excimer laser emits a cool beam of ultraviolet light of a specific wavelength typically nanometers to precisely remove corneal tissue. When the surface of the cornea is reshaped in the right way, it allows light rays to focus properly onto the retina for clear vision. The high-energy pulses of ultraviolet light penetrate only a tiny amount of the cornea and have the ability to remove as little as 0.

One micron is a thousandth of a millimeter. An excimer laser corrects nearsightedness by flattening the cornea; it corrects farsightedness by making the cornea steeper. And astigmatism can be corrected by smoothing an irregular cornea into a more symmetrical shape.