Are you suitable for laser eye surgery?
If you’re thinking of undergoing LASER EYE SURGERY, you should be aware of both its benefits and its risks. Not everyone is a good candidate for laser surgery, so the first thing you have to do is determine whether or not you are suitable to be a patient.
This page discusses the pros and cons of laser eye treatment. To give you an easy-to-use guide as to whether you are a suitable for surgery, we have compiled the factors that you should consider into two lists. The first list is the requisites that need to be met prior to surgery, whilst the second list is the circumstances that would prevent you from having laser eye treatment.
To qualify for laser eye treatment:
- You must suffer from a common eye disorder, such as short sightedness, long sightedness, astigmatism, presbyopia, or a combination of these.
- Your vision problem falls within an acceptable correction range, i.e. up to -12.00 diopters for short sightedness, up to +5.00 diopters for long sightedness and up to -9.00 diopters for astigmatism.
- You have had a comprehensive eye test done by an experienced ophthalmologist.
- You must be over the age of 18.
- You must be healthy enough to make it through procedure whilst obtaining the best possible results.
- You must not have had an eye infection in the twelve months prior to surgery.
- You must have had a stable glasses and/or contact lenses prescription for at least two years.
- You must want to get rid of your glasses and/or contact lenses strongly enough to be ready to invest time and money on it.
- Your cornea must be thick enough (at least 500 microns) to allow the laser to create a relatively deep flap in it.
You should NOT undergo laser surgery if:
- You are perfectly happy wearing glasses and contact lenses.
- You are not even 18 yet, which means your focusing error might increase further.
- Your vision has been changing considerably (of at least half diopter) in the last two years.
- You are pregnant or breast-feeding and therefore subject to hormonal changes.
- You have pre-existing medical issues.
- Your vision problems are too severe to be corrected with laser eye treatment.
- Your eyes are too dry, as this condition might worsen after surgery.
- Your glasses and/or contact lenses prescriptions still need to be changed quite often.
- You do not have realistic goals and you insist upon a perfect correction, whose achievement cannot be guaranteed.
- Your pupils dilate beyond seven millimetres in the dark.