Anything to look out for for someone considering going for LASIK in the next few months?
And be sure you do your annual check-ups. The place where I had mine done guaranteed any follow-up procedures would be free for life, but only if I could show I'd been doing the annual check-ups.
That's about all I can remember. After the procedure, you go home and take a nap. For me, I woke up the next morning and could see clearly.
Even if everything else went perfectly, I don't think that's an acceptable side effect for me.
I already have mild cataracts which make night vision annoying. Definitely don’t need it getting any worse!
The specifics are hard to estimate, since severity is fairly subjective, but it's pretty common for things like traffic lights at night to show them.
At the time it was about $1k per eye and of course vision insurance sucks and won’t make a difference for lasik. My company even had a lasik benefit ($1k/eye) but the offices that worked through insurance cost $2.5k/eye.
If I recall correctly there’s three major laser brands and they’re on the fifth generation lasers. The buzzword at that time was waveform technology.
Overall it has been AMAZING and everyone should do it. Literally can’t express how wonderful it is to no longer need contracts or glasses. It’s probably paid for itself already as well but the quality of life improvements are worth it even if there was no break even point.
After all of the advertising about how amazing and safe and wonderful it is, the rubber meets the road with the release you sign.
Essentially “we’re about to shoot LASERS into your eye and if we manage to not BLIND you, that’s a good outcome.”
All routine, of course, but it’s still a scary form to sign.
It's surprisingly automated. The best thing you can do for yourself is call every provider and ask exactly what model machine they will use. As long as the doctor isn't grossly negligent, the one using the most recent and advanced machine will be your best option.
They were lucky enough to be happy at first (not everybody is). Long term, they all regretted it.
The statistics agree. I would personally not consider LASIK.
Citation? It’s hard to find independent studies on LASIK since it’s big business, which is indeed a good cause for suspicion, but every follow-up survey I can find indicates net satisfaction in the 80-90+% range after 20 years, and the technology has massively improved so I’d expect the rate to go up even more over time.
If we’re doing anecdotes, my father got very early LASIK and is extremely happy he did, over 20 years later his vision is just starting to degrade again and he had only extremely minor halo issues (which are also less prevalent today due to the use of lasers instead of a knife to cut the eye open, leading to less scarring).
I’ve been considering laser eye surgery soon and it seems that all available technologies are decent. Based on my survey, SMILE>PRK>LASIK in terms of outcomes and risk, but SMILE works on a much more limited range of eye issues and PRK requires a somewhat lengthy and uncomfortable recovery period requiring time off work and caretaker support, so LASIK is still a good fallback option.
One had severe "dry eye" feeling (described as "sand in my eyes") for a long time and needed to use drops.
The other had distorted vision and needed multiple follow-up "corrections."
I'm staying with contacts and glasses, personally.
I know a few folks from college who got it done and a bit over decade later they're going strong. My own surgery is just about hitting a decade (couple of months shy). That said, I have a family friend who had bladed LASIK done in their 50s (late 2000s) and their outcome was bad with total loss of sight in the affected eye. The result on their other eye was barely an improvement but plenty of scarring lead to halos and starbursts.
My mom sees halos around lights at night, so much so that she can't drive after sunset. Her eyes are so dry that she gets plugs inserted into her tear ducts to help retain moisture.
My friend who had it done also has severe dry eyes, to the point that he constantly uses eye drops.
In all four cases I know of, the good vision only lasted a few years. Eventually, glasses will be needed again to keep 20/20 vision.
If it matters, I have slight astigmatism in both my eyes.
It’s cataract surgery. Apart from infection practically all the risks are lower than with LASIK. The principal downside is cost. (That said, I haven’t done it yet—I am on daily contacts.)
It’s essentially cataract surgery, so not for safety reasons.
FDA doesn’t recommend it past 45, I believe, because if you have age-related eye degeneration ICL won’t help where LASIK might and because it’s most studied in the 21 to 45 age group. Would be surprised if a surgeon said no due to age alone.