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Archive for the ‘Laser Vision Correction’ Category

Contact Lens Over Wear Syndrome (OWS)

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

If you wear your contact lenses longer than the appropriate timeframe every day, you are at risk of developing a condition called contact lens over wear syndrome (OWS). Over wear syndrome often leads to eye pain, tearing, redness, and a decreased overall vision quality. Typically, OWS is the result of patients wearing their contacts to bed at night, or failing to replace them with new contact lenses when necessary. OWS is often painful and can result in serious vision problems.

If over wear syndrome is left unaddressed, it can lead to:

Eye infections
Decreased vision
Growth of vessels in the cornea
Permanent loss of your best corrected vision

When you wear your contact lenses for too long, you essentially starve your corneas of oxygen. Your body’s reaction to this deprivation is to produce new blood vessels in your cornea that help provide the oxygen your eyes lack. Unfortunately, these new blood vessels often alter the shape of your cornea, and they can leak, leaving deposits.

If you are not cautious, wearing your contacts for too long can threaten your vision. LASIK eye surgery is a valuable solution for patients who want to be freed from their daily dependence on contacts. However, if you have OWS, you will need to stop wearing your contacts for a certain period of time and let your eyes heal before LASIK can be performed.

If you have further questions about contacts, OWS, or LASIK, please contact an experienced ophthalmologist in your area today.

Posted in Contact Lenses, Eye Safety, LASIK, Laser Vision Correction | Comments Off

Lidocaine May Reduce LASIK Pain

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

A recent study has found that using a 2% lidocaine gel as a supplementary anesthetic may give patients a more comfortable LASIK experience. According to researchers, the use of the supplementary lidocaine gel reduced the pain experienced during the LASIK procedure as well as immediately following surgery.

The study compared the pain scores of 51 patients. Each patient had one eye which received the supplementary lidocaine anesthetic, while the other eye received a placebo carbomer gel as a control. Pain scores were then measured during the procedure as well as 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 45 minutes after LASIK was completed.

The pain scores recorded were substantially lower for the eye treated with the supplemental lidocaine gel during the corneal flap creation and laser ablation. Patients also experienced less pain in the lidocaine eye 30 and 45 minutes after the procedure.

If you are considering getting LASIK in the near future, you may want to ask your LASIK surgeon about receiving a supplemental anesthetic. It may make your procedure a much more pleasant experience.

Please contact eyes.com today to find an experienced LASIK surgeon near you.

Posted in LASIK, Laser Vision Correction | Comments Off

Presbyopia

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Having 20/20 vision is nice. It’s the way your vision should be. Millions of people need corrective lenses to see 20/20 because of myopia. However, these individuals, as well as those who have natural 20/20 vision may find when they hit their early 40s that things that were once so crystal clear up close have begun to get fuzzy. This blurred vision may be more than a passing thing, it may be presbyopia.

Presbyopia is part of aging, and unavoidable for nearly everyone after they’ve reached 40. It’s the reason your grandparents all wear reading glasses, and it’s the reason your parents hold their books and magazines as far away from them as they can. Presbyopia is, for all intents and purposes, age-related farsightedness.

Why people develop presbyopia is not fully understood, and there are a couple theories. One is that the lens begins to become hard due to proteins. This makes the lens less flexible to focal changes. Another theory is that the ciliary muscle begins to weaken. This makes it harder for the lens curvature to steepen to see things near. A third, and newest, theory is that the lens continues to grow, and by age 40 it has grown so much that the ciliary muscle does not have enough space to contract and steepen the lens. However, this last theory is not held by many eye doctors right now.

Whatever causes presbyopia can only be fixed by the old standbys: corrective lenses, LASIK, and conductive keratoplasty (CK).

If you are 40 or older and have noticed your near vision beginning to blur, find an experienced eye doctor in your area to test you for presbyopia today.

Posted in Contact Lenses, LASIK, Laser Vision Correction, Presbyopia, Visual Acuity | Comments Off

Does LASIK Make Your Pupils Dilate More?

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

LASIK eye surgery will not increase your pupil size. However, since your vision improves a great deal after LASIK, you might be more attentive to the size of your pupils than you were before. Near vision and bright light can cause your pupils to contract, while far distance and low light will make them dilate.

Each patient’s pupil size tends to be unique. Several different factors can affect the dilation of your pupils, including:

Caffeine
Lighting
Alertness
Medicines
Alcohol

If you already have large pupils and undergo LASIK eye surgery, it is possible that your eyes will dilate beyond than the LASIK treatment zone in darkness. This can cause issues with night vision, such as glare, halos, and starbursts. Having large pupils will not disqualify you from LASIK surgery, but it will be weighed against other factors when an ophthalmologist is determining your LASIK candidacy.

Fortunately, modern LASIK technology has lessened the odds of patients experiencing night vision problems and other LASIK side effects. In fact, studies show that 85% patients who have received treatment from the VISX CustomVue laser have experienced a significant decrease in their amount of night-time glare after surgery when compared to before.

If you have further questions about LASIK surgery and pupil size, please contact an experienced ophthalmologist in your area today to schedule an initial consultation.

Posted in Eye Safety, LASIK, Laser Vision Correction | Comments Off

Is LASIK Safer Than Contacts?

Friday, October 28th, 2011

Many people are drawn to the benefits of LASIK eye surgery, but fearful of its potential complications. However, when the risks of LASIK are compared to the risks of contact lenses, LASIK actually comes out on top as the safer option.

Oxygen is essential in order for your eyes to function properly. Unfortunately, daily contact wear prevents your eyes from naturally receiving oxygen from the air around you. This can lead to problems like irritation, redness, and “ghost vessels” – blood vessels that appear in your eyes in order to re-route oxygen from other areas of your body.

Additionally, the risk of infection from wearing contact lenses is far greater than the risk of infection after LASIK surgery. Even a careful cleaning routine might not wholly prevent infection from contact lenses. In the past few years, many different contact lens solutions have been recalled for providing a higher risk of infection, or else for simply being ineffective.

If you are considering LASIK eye surgery, schedule a consultation with an experienced ophthalmologist in your area today to find out if you are a candidate.

Posted in Eye Safety, Eye Surgery, LASIK, Laser Vision Correction | Comments Off

Corneal Issues and LASIK Candidacy

Friday, October 7th, 2011

Posted in LASIK, Laser Vision Correction, PRK | Comments Off

How Long Does LASIK Last?

Friday, April 15th, 2011

If you are considering LASIK eye surgery, you may have heard conflicting information about how long the results of the surgery last. Is it permanent, or temporary? To understand the answer, you need to have a proper understanding of how LASIK works.

During LASIK, your cornea – the clear membrane that covers the front of your eye – is reshaped to address and correct your specific eye condition. This is permanent; your cornea will not lose its new shape after surgery, no matter how much time has passed.

However, as we get older and begin to reach middle-age, our vision starts naturally deteriorating. LASIK cannot avoid this future problem; it can simply address your specific eye disorder now. Along with our bodies, our vision will change as we grow older. This is unavoidable.

A common eye disorder that comes with age is presbyopia, where a person’s near vision starts to become increasingly blurry, often making reading glasses necessary for many patients. This is not an issue with the cornea, which has been corrected by LASIK, but rather with the eye’s lens. At the time of your LASIK screening, your ophthalmologist can explain this to you in more detail.

If you have further questions about LASIK surgery, please contact an experienced ophthalmologist near you to schedule a consultation.

Posted in Diseases and Conditions, Eye Surgery, LASIK, Laser Vision Correction, Presbyopia, Refractive Errors, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Nonsurgical Treatment Option for Cataracts

Friday, March 18th, 2011

When the eye’s lens becomes obscured by cataracts, the only treatment is to remove it. This solution has been used in one form or another since the 5th century BC. Before cataract surgery, the first doctors practiced a procedure known as “couching,” in which the doctor simply put a stick in your eye and pushed the lens out of the way. Later doctors pushed it out of the way and kind of bashed it up a little so it was in smaller pieces and could be absorbed by the intraocular fluids. It was not until 1748 that the first successful lens removal surgery was performed, though for the first century it was performed without anesthesia. After about another century, the procedure took a huge leap forward in the 1960s when the first intraocular lenses were implanted. Modern intraocular lens technology allows people to get very good vision quality after cataract surgery, but the only treatment remains the surgical removal of the lens.

Now, though, a nonsurgical treatment for cataracts may be on the horizon, according to researchers at Glostrup Hospital of the University of Copenhagen. Apparently, they have used femtosecond lasers in the infra-red range to bleach the cloudy lens of the eye. By zapping the eye with the laser, they claimed they could essentially turn back the clock on cataracts by about 3-7 years.

This technology is in its infancy and will probably not be ready for application for years or even decades, a nonsurgical cataract treatment option finally seems a possibility. Researchers pointed out that the technology could make a huge difference in parts of the world where access to cataract surgery is very limited. Without the need for an extensive surgical suite, a skilled cataract surgeon, and support staff, the treatments could be performed by an automated mobile cataract clinic capable of traveling to isolated villages to perform cataract surgery.

Until this procedure becomes available, though, cataract surgery is the only way to restore vision impaired by a cloudy lens. If your vision is being impacted by cataracts, find a local ophthalmologist who can perform corrective surgery.

Posted in Cataracts, Laser Vision Correction | Comments Off

Improvement in LASIK Safety

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

According to an ophthalmic industry research firm, over the past ten years, there have been around 15 million LASIK surgeries. Of these 15 million LASIK patients, around 95 percent said they are satisfied with the results.

One of the reasons it is believed so many people are happy with LASIK is the vast improvement the procedure has undergone. While it has been available to those who wish to correct their vision, the technology has become much better.

Originally, LASIK was only performed with an oscillating blade that cut across the cornea to create a flap. However, today there are different variations of this laser vision correction procedure, and they don’t use a blade to create a flap. Traditional LASIK is now joined by custom LASIK procedures, such as:

PRK
Intralase
Epi-LASIK
iLASIK
LASEK

These new procedures use lasers to create the flap with a femto laser, but the surface of the cornea can be removed using chemicals, as it is with PRK.

However, the advances in LASIK, even traditional LASIK, mean that the procedure itself and post-LASIK healing are quicker. There is more control using lasers, as well as “mapping” the eye with wavefront technology.

Although a new study called the LASIK Quality of Life Collaboration Project has just begun collecting further data on laser vision correction surgery satisfaction, you can rest assured that both traditional and custom LASIK are very safe, and getting safer, every year.

If you are interested in finding out more about LASIK, please contact an experienced LASIK eye surgeon in your area through www.eyes.com today.

Posted in Eye Safety, LASIK, Laser Vision Correction | Comments Off

Bill Allowing Optometrists in Kentucky to Perform Some Laser Eye Surgery Close to Passing

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

In Kentucky, Senate Bill 110, which would allow optometrists to perform some laser eye surgeries cleared the House Licensing and Occupation Committee 14-2 on Wednesday, February 16. The bill was not even added to the committee agenda until late Tuesday night, and was approved by the state Senate only four days after being filed for consideration.

The bill will let optometrists use lasers to treat some eye conditions and remove any lumps or bumps, but will not let them perform LASIK or procedures requiring anesthesia.

Optometrists are not trained to perform laser surgery and do not attend medical school. Their optometry training continues after graduating from college, and focuses on (no pun intended) things like detecting vision defects and prescribing corrective lenses. Ophthalmologists, on the other hand, are medical doctors trained to perform eye surgery.

Ophthalmologists in Kentucky oppose the bill, but optometrists believe that allowing them to expand their care would be beneficial for Kentuckians since they allege that most citizens do not have access to an ophthalmologist. Ophthalmologists wonder why the bill has moved so quickly through the legislature without anyone really questioning the long-term implications and long-term problems eye patients might have if they go to optometrists for this kind of care.

Some of it may be political. One representative from Lexington stated that she has serious reservations about the bill, and was “deeply offended” when one optometrist told her she should vote for passage of the bill since he gave to her campaign. Indeed, optometrists have given a lot of money to politicians in Kentucky, while ophthalmologists have given almost none.

The bill will now be voted on by the full House in Kentucky.

If you have questions about laser correction surgery, please contact www.eyes.com to find an experienced ophthalmologist in your area today.

Posted in Eye Safety, LASIK, Laser Vision Correction | Comments Off