Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Your Expectations for Laser Eye Surgery

Your Expectations for Laser Eye Surgery

Laser eye surgery is one of those elective surgeries that you may have your own ideas of what the outcome will be that may not necessarily be the true outcome. As with any type of elective surgery you must realize what your expectations, ideas, and hopes are for the outcome of the surgery. Is it your expectations that your vision will be 20/20 as it was when you were a child?

Before any type of elective surgery including laser eye surgery, you should discuss your hopes and expectations with your ophthalmologist. He should be able to explain that not all of your ideas are true with laser eye surgery. Yes, your blurry vision will be improved but maybe not to the extent that you desire.

Normally, individuals with very poor vision to the extent that their vision is so bad that they cannot be fitted with contacts are very pleased after laser eye surgery. Any improvement over wearing those thick ugly glasses is a lifesaver. However, if you are one of those individuals who are mild to moderately nearsighted then you must know that 90 percent of patients are able to drive during daylight hours without wearing glasses or contacts. The other 10 percent still need to wear corrective lenses. Out of the 90 percent that can see to drive without their glasses during the day, the majority, still have to wear glasses at night to see to drive.

When you think of good vision, you may not really be considering all the aspects of good eyesight, which include such things as depth of field, night vision, color vision, contrast sensitivity, and bi-ocular vision. The depth of field is if you can see clearly from near to far. Color vision is if you can differentiate between the colors of red and green. Contrast sensitivity is the ability to differentiate between the various shades of gray. Night vision is the ability to see in low lighting conditions. Bi-ocular vision is your eye working together properly.

To ensure if you will be happy with your laser surgery you should of course talk it over with your eye surgeon. Remember, you may not receive perfect vision, but your eyesight will be improved over what you now have without wearing glasses or contact lenses full time. The choice is yours, just be sure that you will be happy with the results.

Nicky Pilkington