Preparing
for L.A.S.I.K!
Refractive
surgery is a general term for surgical procedures
designed to improve or correct the focusing ability of the
eye. It is estimated that nearsightedness and astigmatism
affect over 60 million people in the United States. A person's
inability to see clearly can be caused by nearsightedness (myopia),
farsightedness (hyperopia),
and/or astigmatism.
In most cases, these three types of refractive errors can be
corrected through refractive surgery. There
are a variety of procedures available to correct each of these
refractive errors and determining which is best for
you is not always simple. There are many considerations to
make before choosing a procedure that appropriately suits your
lifestyle. It
is also important to know that refractive surgery is not a
choice for everyone. In some instances, we strongly encourage
people who are not suitable candidates, to continue wearing
their glasses or contact lenses.
If you are an active person, you may appreciate being less
dependent upon glasses or contact lenses for water skiing,
swimming, scuba diving, snow skiing or other activities that
are an important part of your lifestyle. For some
professionals, like firefighters and police officers, many
have found that being able to function without glasses or
contact lenses on the job is an added safety benefit. It
is important that in addition to knowing how the eye works,
you should have some information about the phenomenon of
vision prior to considering any Refractive
Surgery.
Vision
is a complex experience involving sharp acuity for near and
distance, color vision and perception, motion detection,
flicker fusion, contrast awareness, depth perception,
peripheral vision and many other psychophysical
phenomena.
The
system requires a well functioning eye, a connection with the
visual cortex of the brain and the training and experience to
understand what you a connection with the visual cortex of the
brain and the training and experience to understand what you
have seen. It also requires a feedback nerve loop that
continuously tracks any objects that you are interested in. Following
are a few examples:
Snellen
Visual Acuity - "20/20" vision refers to
the size of a letter projected onto a chart that a person with
"average" or "normal" vision can see at 20
feet. Someone with 20/40 vision needs to go to 20 feet to see
what the "normal" person can see at 40 feet and the
person with 20/200 vision needs to go to 20 feet to see what
the "normal" person can see at 200 feet. The same
information is often documented in meters (6/6 =20/20 ) or
even numerically as 1.0 . Most states require 20/40 vision or
better in at least one eye to get a driver's license without a
restriction for glasses or contact lenses.
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