Laser surgery is used for the correction of farsightedness, nearsightedness and astigmatism. So what is lasik surgery exactly? Well during laser eye surgery there is a refraction process necessary and this process can be done with a number of different procedures, two of the main ones being LASIK and Precision. Each procedure has its pros and cons and it will be down to your doctor to choose which will be best suited to your condition.

What is Precision surgery?

This procedure is usually performed as an outpatient care with eye drops that have local anesthesia. A refractive correction is put into use with a computer controlled laser beam which reshapes the cornea. The recovery period for this procedure is normally as little as three days. As always though, there is no guarantee that this procedure will completely eliminate your need for corrective lenses, nevertheless your doctor should be able to give you an idea of the likelihood of the procedure being a complete success in your case beforehand. The most common side effect to this procedure is seeing a glare or halo around lights but this side-effect normally disappears with time.

What is LASIK surgery?

The Lasik process is also commonly used, so much so in fact that people often use the term Lasik surgery when they are referring to laser eye surgery in general. Lasik is normally used on people who suffer from nearsightedness. This procedure is a little more invasive than the Precision procedure but it is still considered to be a safe laser eye surgery procedure, hence the reason it is used so much.

With Lasik, Doctors have to actually make an incision in the cornea tissu itself. LASIK is often a very successful option that can correct some pretty severe problems, although these cases may sometimes require more than just one procedure. LASIK often has an even faster recovery period and most patients notice noticeable improvements in their vision immediately following their treatment.

If you want to go forward and have your eyes operated on I suggest you continue your research so that you can make sure you make the right decision. Remember that it will be important to take into account any medical conditions you may have as these could affect which procedure you undergo, healing time, recovery time etc.

For instance Lasik may not be the most suited procedure for someone who has a slow recovery time. Also vascular disease, eye disease, autoimmune diseases and even diabetes can have an effect on the healing process. For this reason it will be essential that your doctor has all of your medical information at his or her disposal in order to advise you on the best procedure for you.

So now you know the answer to the question of what is lasik surgery and laser eye surgery, nevertheless as I said before I still believe that if you do want to have an operation performed you should research the subject more thoroughly as you need all the information at your disposal to make the right decision for you on this matter.

Cosmetic laser eye surgery: Blepharoplasty

Blepharoplasty is the type of cosmetic laser eye surgery that can be performed with the intent of removing any age related changes to the eye. With Blepharoplasty your waste skin is removed from around the eyelids with the help of a laser, even fatty deposits located underneath the eye can be taken away. The incisions created by the laser when removing unwanted skin are closed with the help of small sutures which will be removed after around four to five days. Like other laser eye surgeries, patients are able to go home after a couple of hours from having their surgery performed.

The many benefits of using lasers

One of the main advantages with lasers when performing cosmetic laser eye surgery, or any I related surgery for that matter, is precision.  With a laser a surgeon can quickly seal blood vessels which translates in the surgeon being able to have a far better view of the organ he or she is working on. It stands to reason that if the surgeon can see the eye he or she is working on better,  he or she will be able to do more precise work. Additionally lasers leave less postoperative swelling as opposed to order ways of doing surgery. And on top of all this surgery performed with lasers equals less scarring, bruising and change in tissue color.

Once the procedure has been performed

As with most laser eye surgery, cosmetic laser eye surgery has a very short recovery time, normally within a few days you will be completely back to normal or close to it.  For a few days after the operation you will undoubtedly suffer from a few normal symptoms, depending on the exact cosmetic laser eye surgery procedure you have performed these symptoms may vary a little bit. Some symptoms are a little discomfort from bright lights, blurred vision and in some cases some pain.  Your doctor will normally prescribe some medication whether it be oral, eyedrops or both for you to take in the coming days after the operation.

Not everybody is a good candidate for cosmetic laser eye surgery and before you can have the surgery performed you will need your doctor to have looked into your case and giving you the green light.  One must remember that this being a medical procedure, it does not come with out its risks, having said that in most cases they are minimal.  Nevertheless you should look at cosmetic laser eye surgery from all angles and then evaluate the risks versus the benefits for you before you make your decision.

All laser eye surgery vision correction that falls under the PRK form involves an ablation to remove the outermost layer of the cornea, where as laser eye surgery vision correction that falls under the Lasik form is performed by creating a flap with a cutting technique in the cornea.

PRK surgery

During this form of laser eye surgery vision correction the outer layer of the cornea will be scraped away.  Then a laser will be used to reshape the underlying surface of the cornea.  After the surgery has been performed the epithelium layer will grow back over time.

Generally speaking this form of laser eye surgery vision correction is better suited to those who have a thin cornea since cutting a cornea flap in this case would not be a good idea. However this surgery does have a drawback in that the recovery times can be longer than other forms of laser eye surgery vision correction and there can be some slight discomfort during the healing process. On the positive side though, the fact that you do not need to create a flap is good since this process often carries more risk plus with PRK there is no deep penetration of the eye which means the patient has no risk of suffering from inner eye pressure.

LASEK surgery

Basically LASEK is a more advanced form of PRK in which an alcohol solution is employed to soften up the epithelium before removal. Once the cornea has been reshaped with the laser the epithelium is once more put back in place. The main advantage of LASEK over PRK if that the recovery time is quicker. Since this operation is based on PRK there is still no need to create a flap in the cornea.

LASIK surgery

With this form of laser eye surgery vision correction a metal blade is used to cut the cornea flap and then a laser is used to reshape the eye itself. Once the surgeon has finished with the laser he or she will return the flap back to its correct position.  In most cases this surgery is painless and the vision of the patient is corrected immediately, normally with the patient suffering from blurry vision for around 24 hours.  In most cases the vision of the patient will improve completely in just a couple of weeks.  This method gives far quicker results than the PRK method.

At the end of the day each one of these types of laser eye surgery vision correction has its place.  Any person interested in undergoing laser eye surgery vision correction should consult with an eye doctor to see which of these forms of laser eye surgery would be best for their eye condition.

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A lot of folks aren’t aware of this, but there happen to exist a few different types of laser eye surgery you can choose from. It is therefore one hundred percent imperative, if you happen to be thinking of undergoing the procedure yourself, to learn about these different types of laser eye surgery, so that you will be able to chose the particular type that is best suited to you and your condition. Of cause you should discuss this mater with your doctor, but here’s is some basic info on the different types of laser eye surgery to get you going.

The Different Types of Laser Eye Surgery

One of the most basic and often recommended types of laser eye surgery is known as radial keratotomy, and this is one in which the procedure will involve the cutting of spoke-like incisions into your eye, so as to flatten out its surface.

Although it is primarily utilized to treat nearsightedness, it is capable of treating all kinds of vision problems; it will be your dr. who will be able to properly determine whether or not this option is right for you.

Another very well known type of laser eye surgery is Laser-Assisted in situ Keratomileusis, or better known to the public as Lasik. In this procedure, a thin flap is made on the surface of the eye, and there is a pulsing of a tightly-focused laser onto the surface, by very carefully controlling the size and number of laser pulses, the surgeon performing the surgery is able to control just how much of the cornea is actually removed.

Just how much of your cornea needs to be removed will vary from one procedure to another and will depending greatly on just how serious your vision problem actually is.

There are of cause even with today’s modern technologies, a number of risks and complications that can arise from these procedures, in particular, the problem of undercorrection and overcorrection are liable. With undercorrection there simple was not enough tissue removed during the procedure, whereas with overcorrection, there was simple too much tissue removed.

Wrinkling can also be a problem that can result from having vision correction surgery performed when using the Lasik technique. This can occurs when the corneal flap has a small fold or wrinkle in it at the moment of being replaced, and this is often not noticed by the surgeon until it is too late.

With all these possible problems generally you can have correction surgery later to put the problem right, but it isn’t always totally successful. Having said that these days most people come out of surgery with out any problems, you should consult with your doctor about the risk to you and then make the decision on whether or not it will be worth while. Remember also that a lot of problems that can occur will be from human error from the surgeon performing your surgery, so make sure you do your research on the surgeon performing your operation so you know he/she has a good record.