As you would expect, laser eye surgery helps people with certain conditions better than other conditions:

  • If the problem with your eye does not involve your cornea or lens, but involves some other problem with vision (like your brain), laser eye surgery is not for you. Laser surgery is really only for those who have standard vision problems such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism. If you're not sure what your vision problem is, just see an optometrist.

  • The more severe the near or farsightedness is, the more likely that the surgery will be a bust.

  • It also doesn't work well for extreme astigmatisms, or people with large pupils (because the laser won't be able to reach all of the parts it needs to). In other words, you have to have normal-bad vision, not coke-bottle-bad vision.

  • You have to have stable vision. This means that your eyeball has finished growing and changing, and your prescription basically stays the same. This is why younger people with growing eyeballs cannot have laser eye surgery: because their eyeballs have not finished forming, and laser eye surgery can't account for future developmental changes.

  • You have to be in good health. No diseases, diabetes, healing disorders, or tendencies to scar.

  • You shouldn't have had previous major eye surgery, or the healing may be unpredictable.

  • To take a survey to see if you're a good candidate, try going to http://www.lasikinstitute.org/eligibility.html

SoYouWanna know more? Check out our full-length article SYW get laser eye surgery?