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+ADw-li+AD4APA-a href+AD0AIg-/site/syws/lasereye/lasereye.html+ACIAPg-1. Find out if you're a good candidate+ADw-/a+AD4APA-/li+AD4APA-li+AD4APA-a href+AD0AIg-/site/syws/lasereye/lasereye2.html+ACIAPg-2. Know the risks+ADw-/a+AD4APA-/li+AD4APA-li+AD4APA-a href+AD0AIg-/site/syws/lasereye/lasereye3.html+ACIAPg-3. Decide what kind of eye surgery you can use+ADw-/a+AD4APA-/li+AD4APA-li+AD4APA-a href+AD0AIg-/site/syws/lasereye/lasereye4.html+ACIAPg-4. Decide if it's worth the cost+ADw-/a+AD4APA-/li+AD4APA-li+AD4APA-a href+AD0AIg-/site/syws/lasereye/lasereye5.html+ACIAPg-5. Pick a surgeon+ADw-/a+AD4APA-/li+AD4-
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+ADw-h2+AD4APA-a name+AD0AIg-para0+ACIAPgA8-/a+AD4APA-/h2+AD4APA-p+AD4-Technology has come a long way, baby. Take vision assistance, for instance. In caveman times, if you had bad sight, you bumped into stuff and were eventually eaten by a saber-toothed tiger. Next came reading glasses. Then, in the 1700s, Benjamin Franklin invented bifocals. Contact lenses were later invented. But the problem with these methods is that they all require you either putting crap on your face, or into your eyeballs. There's gotta be a better way.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-Enter laser eye surgery. A quickly growing industry, laser eye surgery involves a doctor changing your eyeball so that you don't have to wear glasses or contacts anymore, possibly granting you 20/20 vision. But we must emphasize that laser eye surgery will not give you the ability to shoot laser beams out of your eyes. OK, so seeing more clearly sounds great, but whenever you're dealing with the combination of lasers and eyeballs, you should at least ask a couple of questions about the whole process. Fortunately for you, we're hear to answer your questions. Here's a warning, though: some people get squeamish when thinking about things going into their eyeballs. Don't wuss out on us.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-First, you need some technical explanation of what laser eye surgery involves. Laser eye surgery has been available since the late +ACYAIw-145+ADs-80s in Canada, but wasn't approved in the US until 1995. Every year, the number of patients doubles, and in 1999, it is expected that over one million people will have undergone the surgery in the United States. It basically involves going into a licensed doctor's office and having a laser shot through your pupil to change your lens or cornea so that your eyes can focus better. It is relatively painless (done under local anesthetic), and takes only about 15 minutes. And your eyes will look exactly the same afterwards (sorry, but you can't change that eye color). Laser eye surgery might really help you out, so read on to get all the facts, and decide whether you want to go through with it or not.+ADw-h2+AD4APA-a name+AD0AIg-para0+ACIAPg-1. FIND OUT IF YOU'RE A GOOD CANDIDATE+ADw-/a+AD4APA-/h2+AD4-Laser eye surgery is not a magic bullet. It's not even a magic laser. As you would expect, it helps people with certain conditions better than other conditions. For instance, if you're blind, it won't work. Also, 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. You might still be able to aid your vision, but with some other process that we know nothing about. Laser surgery is really only for those who have standard vision problems such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, or an astigmatism. If you're not sure what your vision problem is, just see an optometrist.+ADw-p+AD4-So let's say that you're nearsighted (that means that you can see things fine close up, but things far away are blurry). Now you have to find out if your case is extreme or not. See, 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.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-You also 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. Don't worry though, young people are used to getting rejected. It'll build their character, even if they continue to bump into trees.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-OK, so let's say that this all checks out. Finally, you have to be in good health. No diseases, diabetes, healing disorders, or tendencies to scar. And your eyes have to be healthy too (no pus or blood randomly leaking out). You also 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 +ADw-a href+AD0AIg-http://www.lasikinstitute.org/eligibility.html+ACIAPg-http://www.lasikinstitute.org/eligibility.html+ADw-/a+AD4-
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+ADw-h2+AD4APA-a name+AD0AIg-para0+ACIAPg-2. KNOW THE RISKS+ADw-/a+AD4APA-/h2+AD4-So you've checked it out, and you've found out that you are a viable candidate for laser eye surgery. Now you have to be fully responsible for any risks that might happen. Look, you are going to have a LASER shoot LASER BEAMS into your EYEBALL. This is not a process that happens in nature. Ancient humans did not get struck by lightning in the eye, and come away with better vision. So at least be aware of the following risks. But right off the bat, let us assure you that severe complications are extremely rare. There are a few highly publicized cases which involve the surgery completely screwing up a patient's vision so that they have to wear sunglasses to go outside, or create blurriness that can't ever be corrected, even by glasses. But this is very rare. You're probably more likely to be hit by a car driven by a penguin than have crazy-severe complications.+ADw-p+AD4-The main risk that you have to incur is that you are undergoing surgery. There are never any guarantees in surgery, and never trust a doctor that does give you a 100+ACU- guarantee.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-Second, understand that this procedure is relatively new. No tests have been conducted on the long-term effects of laser eye surgery, so no one can tell you what's gonna happen to your vision in 10 or 20 years.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-Also, accept that your vision will probably not reach 20/20. Don't get us wrong, it'll probably be very good+ADs- In fact, it'll get close to perfect. But don't expect it. Only half of the candidates have 20/20 vision after 6 months (though 93+ACU- have 20/40 vision after 6 months).+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-It's also important to realize that people in their 40s and up will probably need reading glasses after the surgery. This is because almost all 40+-year-olds need reading glasses. Why can't laser eye surgery fix this? Because geezers' need for reading glasses stems from the fact that the lenses in their eyes become thicker, and present laser surgery can't fix this. So if you are over 40 and only wear contacts, you'll have to buy a pair of reading glasses post-surgery.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-Finally, there are side effects that can take place. The most serious would be that the procedure either does not correct, or actively worsens your vision. Fortunately, if this occurs, you can usually try again. Just go to a different doctor. Other potential side effects are glares, seeing halos around lights, dry eyes, or difficulty seeing at night or in dim light. But these effects are also often temporary.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-It's especially important to consider these risks if your career highly depends on your vision. If you're a pilot, for instance, or an Olympic archer or a surgeon. (Why you're reading this if you're a surgeon, we have no idea.) In such cases, if you see fine with glasses, just suck it up and stick with them. The surgery isn't worth it. Still worried? Read the +ADw-a href+AD0AIg-http://www.livestrong.com/article/4997-need-lasik-eye-surgery-risks/+ACIAPg-top 5 laser eye surgery risks+ADw-/a+AD4- you need to consider before the procedure.+ADw-h2+AD4APA-a name+AD0AIg-para0+ACIAPg-3. DECIDE WHAT KIND OF EYE SURGERY YOU CAN USE+ADw-/a+AD4APA-/h2+AD4APA-p+AD4-There are two main kinds of surgery: LASIK and PRK.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-LASIK is much easier to say than it's long version: laser assisted intrastromal keratomileusis. For LASIK, the skin covering the eye is cut and lifted, the top layer of the cornea is cut and lifted, and the underlying layer of the cornea is reshaped with a laser. The new shape allows the eye to focus images on the back of the retina more clearly. The pain is minimal, and the process takes 15 minutes. This is the most popular laser eye surgery, with over 800,000 procedures being performed in 1999.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-The PRK (photorefractive keratectomy) is an earlier laser eye surgery procedure, and it differs from LASIK in that PRK reshapes the surface of the cornea, not the underlying layer. In other words, it does not lift the top layer, but kinda goes through it. That's why it might be a little more uncomfortable, it takes longer to heal, and the side effects last longer. Also, with PRK, you have to take eye drops for up to 4 months. But on the plus side, PRK is less surgery-ish (fewer instruments, and the surgeon doesn't have to actually cut and lift a flap of the cornea).+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-Talk to your ophthalmologist about the two procedures, but virtually all ophthalmologists will recommend the LASIK. Using LASIK, within a week, your permanent vision will be reached without any more eye drops or maintenance.+ADw-h2+AD4APA-a name+AD0AIg-para0+ACIAPg-4. DECIDE IF IT'S WORTH THE COST+ADw-/a+AD4APA-/h2+AD4APA-p+AD4-Laser eye surgery is not cheap. It costs at least +ACQ-4,000 (at least, if you get it done by a properly licensed ophthalmologist and not an ice cream seller), and will probably set you back +ACQ-6,000 (these numbers are all for both eyes+ADs- halve the estimate if you only need one eye to be fixed). If you leave the country, you might get it for +ACQ-2,000. But hey, come to our house and we'll do it for +ACQ-50. The point is, if you're going to get it, then get it right. Do not skimp, because these are your eyes we're talking about.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-But will your health insurance cover it? Well, the thing is that most insurance companies consider the procedure to be elective surgery at the present time, analogous to cosmetic surgery, and won't cover it. Can you imagine? This important vision improvement is considered equivalent to a chin tuck. But this'll probably change soon. A few insurance carriers actually already pay for the procedure, and within the next two years, most other major carriers will hopefully jump on the wagon.+ADw-h2+AD4APA-a name+AD0AIg-para0+ACIAPg-5. PICK A SURGEON+ADw-/a+AD4APA-/h2+AD4-If you've decided that you're completely willing to go through with the risks and costs, all that's left is to pick out a good surgeon. The first thing you should do is visit your optometrist (if you need the surgery, then you already have one) and ask for some recommendations. When meeting with the potential surgeons, ask them how many times they've performed the surgery, what their training was, how they prepare for the surgery, how long they have been performing the surgery, and what the newest and safest techniques are. By comparison shopping, you'll find out which surgeons are behind on the times, and which ones are up-to-date. Also make sure that the equipment the doctor is using has been approved by the FDA. (How? Just ask.) Finally, you should always ask for a list of patients that the doctor performed the surgery on, and talk to those patients. Don't worry about wasting their time. They're patient. (We like that joke.)+ADw-p+AD4-If you don't have any friends to give you recommendations, then you are probably a loser. But that also means that you can visit the +ADw-a href+AD0AIg-http://www.abop.org+ACIAPg-American Board of Ophthalmology+ADw-/a+AD4- to make sure your surgeon is certified.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-So now that you know exactly how to get laser eye surgery, we'll quickly walk you through the procedure, just so that you can know exactly what's involved. You'll lay down, and the surgeon will give you some anesthetic eye drops. In a couple of seconds, you won't be able to see out of that eye. Then a tube will be placed over your eye, and you'll feel a tiny bit of pressure. The laser will be placed on the other end of the tube, the doctor will fix your eye, and that's it+ACE- In a couple of minutes, your vision will return (albeit blurry vision), and then the doctor will do the same thing to your other eye, if needed. You shouldn't drive for 24 hours (so remember to bring a friend to drive you home), but you can go back to work the next day, as long as your job isn't vision intensive. You'll use eye drops for about a week to keep any infection away, and you'll be done.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-You now know as much about laser eye surgery as any non-ophthalmologist has a right to know. You know about the risks, the different procedures, and the prices. So regardless of your decision, we wish you the best in your future viewing experiences. Remember, though: there's nothing wrong with glasses. Most people choose to have the surgery because they simply can't stand having glasses or contacts. Athletes, for instance. Be sure that you really really hate your glasses, and are dying to get rid of them.+ADw-/p+AD4APA-p+AD4-So good luck+ACE- The eyes have it.
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