3 key arguments for why you should undergo laser vision correction
What is of most interest to patients considering undergoing laser vision correction?
First, whether laser eye surgery is painful.
Second, whether laser eye surgery is safe.
Third, whether laser eye surgery is really effective.
The answers to these three key questions are also the three most important arguments for why it is really worth undergoing laser vision correction.
Doesn’t hurt
Laser eye surgery is not painful. The procedure, which lasts from a few to several minutes, is carried out under local anesthesia (drops), in an outpatient setting, and takes far less time than preparing for it! Psychologists and psychiatrists dealing with anxiety disorders note that in patients suffering from allophobia, or fear of feeling pain, the very process of waiting for pain can sometimes be unbearable. This means that the fear of pain can be stronger than the pain itself! If you are being held back from laser vision correction by just such a phobia, we have good news for you: it really doesn’t hurt!
You don’t have to focus on the coming pain, because you won’t experience it, and delay the decision about eye surgery in time. You can throw the procedure on the conveyor belt, shortening the time of the unpleasant mental experience of waiting!
After surgery, you will only experience discomfort related to the type of laser intervention. In the case of FemtoLASIK and SMILE (so-called deep methods), discomfort may occur up to 3-4 hours after the procedure. This will include tearing due to the fact that the epithelium has been incised. In the PRK/LASEK/TransPRK method, discomfort can last up to 3-4 days.
Laser surgery is safe
Doctors have had enough time to develop and refine various methods of laser vision correction. The history of ophthalmic surgery dates back to the 1950s, and the first successful procedure on the seeing eye using an excimer laser was performed by Dr. Theo Seiler in 1987.
The rapid development of ophthalmic techniques makes laser eye surgery the maximum safe procedure. The number of complications is less than 1% of cases.
Currently, laser vision correction is considered the most advanced method a refractive surgeon can reach for, but within this method, too, we can identify less and more advanced surgical techniques. All of them are safe and carry no risk of vision loss – and this is what patients fear most.
The only issue that may irritate patients is that for some time after the procedure (up to about six months) there may be symptoms such as excessive dry eyes or halo effect, but these eventually pass.
Laser surgery is effective
For any medical procedure, the term “guarantee” is not used, but “effectiveness of the procedure.” The laser vision correction procedure is effective in approx. 95%.
Importantly, it is effective not only, as is often thought, for nearsightedness. The laser can perfectly handle farsightedness (hyperopia) and astigmatism. Laser intervention is also carried out in cases of presbyopia (so-called presbyopia farsightedness), and the latest surgical technologies make it possible to combine short/farsightedness/dystopia surgery with simultaneous removal of other visual defects, such as astigmatism.
Laser vision correction performed on an eye with a stabilized defect will not require docking (another correction when the defect becomes larger).
