What is LASIK Eye Surgery

LASIK Eye Surgery is a surgical procedure that reduces your dependency on glasses or contact lenses. LASIK (Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis) is the latest in laser surgery, and has attracted people who suffer from vision problems. It is an eye surgery procedure, where an excimer laser is used to reshape your cornea, the clear covering of the front of the eye, to improve your vision.

The excimer laser has been accepted as the most accurate of devices in eye surgery, where a pulse of laser can shave off 0.25 microns of tissue from your cornea. (1 micron = 0.00004 of an inch).

Vision Correction through LASIK Eye Surgery

The cornea in the human eye functions just as the lens does in a camera. It helps focus light on the retina of the eye to create an image. Over time, with imperfections developing in the cornea, the image formed on the retina may not be very clear. We know these imperfections – Refractive Errors – more commonly as Myopia, Hyperopia, and Astigmatism. Myopia, or nearsightedness, occur when we have problems seeing far or distant objects. Hyperopia, or farsightedness, occurs when we have difficulties seeing objects that are near. In the case of Astigmatism, the imperfections in the cornea distort the image on the retina.

There can be vision problems that are a combination of Myopia and Astigmatism, as well as a combination of Hyperopia and Astigmatism.

Benefits of LASIK - What is LASIK Used For

With the popularity of the laser eye surgery procedure, many people now understand the benefits of LASIK, and what is LASIK used for. Simply put, LASIK is used to correct wide ranges of imperfections in the cornea. This precise and controlled surgical procedure corrects the imperfections of the cornea by reshaping it. The basic benefits of LASIK are the negation of the need to use glasses and contact lenses.

The other benefits of LASIK are that the complete surgical procedure is painless, there is no pain after then procedure, and you normally regain good vision almost immediately. We generally make use of glasses or contact lenses to compensate for the imperfections in our eyes. LASIK does exactly that, but through a process known as refractive surgery. In involves the use of a special laser to remove a thin wafer-like tissue of the cornea to change and improve its focusing power.

About 90 percent of the people with low to moderate myopia can achieve a 20/40 vision after going through the LASIK eye surgery procedure.

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