Laser Eye Surgery Articles                

If you are one of the millions of people who currently have the hassle of wearing glasses or contact lenses, it is likely you have thought about laser vision correction before.

Many of the advantages of having refractive surgery are clear to see, even to those who are not considering the procedure.

First of all, you get the opportunity to enjoy the convenience of not needing to wear your glasses in day to day activities, which will obviously depend on how strong your prescription is.

For some people, it can feel quite restrictive if your natural eyesight is so poor that you need your glasses just to reach the bathroom at night, while for others, wearing glasses can get in the way of hobbies and activities, like swimming or running.

Even for those with a relatively 'low' prescription, the hassle of: - for example - taking off your glasses when getting into a damp bus, train or room because of condensation, can make wearing them an unwanted annoyance.

Traditional solutions to these problems are inherently short term - a band to hold spectacles on not only looks and feels awkward, but can make it difficult to aim in precision sports like squash or tennis, as the image you see moves when your glasses do, due to the diffraction caused by the lenses in your glasses. Contact lenses have problems of their own.

Some people simply find them uncomfortable and do not wish, or are not able, to constantly put things directly into their eyes. Wearing contact lenses can also make eyes more prone to infection, as proper care is needed and they are not suitable for swimming in water treated with chlorine as residue can remain on the lenses.

In addition, while laser vision correction is a considerable expenditure for most people, contact lenses do have their own cost, which can be considerable when accounting for the proper cleaning solutions, as well as the lenses themselves (which cost more for special conditions, such as astigmatism).

Refractive surgery is by no means guaranteed to give perfect 20/20 vision to all patients in all cases, but it does have an extremely high success rate in improving the unaided eyesight of most patients.

This means that, even if you currently have a strong prescription or a particular eye condition and the laser vision correction improves your eyesight to a noticeable degree, although not perfect, you can enjoy a higher quality of life by knowing that you can get by for certain tasks without the need for eye wear.

Also, in that situation, the glasses that you would need can be much cheaper and thinner than would otherwise be the case, which can give you a greater freedom over your choice of frames.

While you will need to visit the clinic performing your refractive surgery a few times, the actual procedure itself is very quick and can be undertaken in less time than an ordinary eye test visit.

Depending on the procedure used, sometimes the eyes are covered for healing, but most patients do see the improvement to their vision immediately.