Lasik Surgery - Things You Must Know About It!

Hello,

I am Dr. Jatin Ashar. I am practising eye surgeon. I have been practising for the last 10 years. My areas of speciality are cornea, cornea transplant, lasik and laser refractive surgeries and customise cataract surgeries. Today I am speaking to you about lasik surgery. So what is it that one needs to understand when one wants to opt for getting rid of their glasses, though glasses are something that are in fashion today, but not everybody wants to use glasses and contact lenses are often cumbersome for people to use, to maintain their hygiene everyday and the wear time is something that people don't want to get into, again people want to be independent of their glasses, to enjoy their life in terms of contact sports, going swimming or to enjoy all the activities that they cannot do because of the glasses, so laser refractive surgery or Lasik is the answer to their problems.

This surgery is basically a very simple procedure by which one can get rid of their glasses, so how does one undergo lasik surgery or how do you decide whether you are a candidate for laser refractive surgery, when one is about 18 years of age and has a stable refraction for at least six months without any change in their numbers and is not pregnant or lactating then one can think about undergoing a few evaluation tests, which are called pre lasik evaluation tests wherein we check their corneal power i.e. using the machine call topography, we check for their eye glass power using an automated refraction, look at the corneal thickness map using the pachymetry map and look at the aberrations in the eye using aberrometer.

Once we have done these investigations then we deem to understand whether the patient is suitable to undergo the laser refractive surgery or Lasik, having understood that what is suitable to undergo lasik procedure, this surgery is done in the following manner so let us understand the steps that are involved in doing the laser surgery, so what we basically do in this procedure is to reshape the cornea that is the front part of your eye, this is like a transparent glass, a thin flap of the cornea is made which is a circular flap when we raise the corneal flap using a special instrument called microkeratome and that is left attached to the rest of the cornea using a hinge, after doing this the laser energy is delivered to the cornea which reshape the cornea in proportion to the number that has to be corrected and the flap placed back. On external appearance your eye looks as it was otherwise, this procedure took a few seconds and is relatively painless and has a quick recovery.

Most of the people gain 85 to 90% of their vision within the first few hours after the procedure and rest of the vision recovery happens over the next couple of days. In terms of the routine activities they can resume their activities like watching television, reading a book or seeing their mobile phone right from the same day of the procedure, contact sports however are best avoided for a period of one week till the complete healing occurs. Postoperatively a few drops have to be instill in the eye for a period of one week to one month and patients can resume their normal activities like computer work in just a day or two after the surgery. Most of the patients are pain free immediately after the surgery; however, a few may experience a little discomfort in their eyes for the first few hours after the procedure which vanishes by the next day of the surgery. Postoperatively patients may experience a little dryness in the eyes, for which a few lubricating drops may be prescribed by us which have to be put in the patient’s eye and they are relieved of their symptoms. The advantage this procedure gives is that they are rid of their glasses permanently and they can enjoy a spectacle free life all throughout. So if you want to consult with me privately please click on the consult button.

Thank you