Laser eye-surgery instead of glasses. Any good?

[MixedHerbs]

Hello,

Both my pairs of glasses are up for replacement so I am considering having my eyes zapped with a laser. Has anyone out there had experience of this procedure good or bad?

Regards, Peter.

 

[motownmartin]

I haven't but I know a man that has, he says it's worth it, but after about 8 years he says they need to be done again.

I have considered it myself but keep spending the money on woodworking tools :lol:

Martin

 

[Steve Maskery]

Peter,
It probably depends on how old you are.

I've had extensive eye surgery (although not laser - yet!) and I never cease to marvel at the magic of being able to see. If I'd lived 100 years ago I'd be at best blind and probably dead by now, I certainly wouldn't be leading the sort of life I do lead.

As we get older, our eye muscles get weaker. They squeeze the lens to focus. The closer the object the more we have to squeeze to bend the light to focus on the retina. As this getsw more and more difficult, we have to hold the paper further away to get it in focus, or use thicker glasses to help us on our way.

Laser modification of the cornea has no effect whatsoever on this process, so, with or without Lasek, your muscles will weaken in middle age and your eyesight will deteriorate. OK it's not bound to happen, but that's the normal pattern. So if you have the surgery now, and they are pretty good at getting it right, it doesn't mean it will be right in a few years time.

I wear CLs and have good visoin. Without them I have modest vision with one eye and just colour and movement with the other. I'm thinking of having that one zapped to try to get it on a par with the other. I don't really need perfect, I would just like to reduce the mbalance between the two.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

Cheers
Steve

 

[MixedHerbs]

I am nearly 50, long sighted, and spend about 8 hours a day in front of a PC. By the looks of things, even if my eyes are zapped, I will still need reading glasses for my VDU work. The sums are starting to not add-up.

Regards, Peter.

 

[Paul Chapman]

There was an interesting piece about this on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 two or three weeks ago. Various people 'phoned in to talk about their experiences.

It seems that sometimes it's very successful but there are risks and, like all surgical procedures, it can result in you being left worse off. The view of Sarah Jarvis, the resident medical expert on the show, was that unless there are compelling reasons to have laser treatment, it was better to stick with spectacles or contact lenses. That was the same conclusion I came to.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[MixedHerbs]

Thanks for the feedback.

I think I'll get two sets of specs and an Axminster Planer.

Regards, Peter.

 

[davy_owen_88]

Thanks for the feedback.

I think I'll get two sets of specs and an Axminster Planer.

Regards, Peter.

Good choice :lol:

I had to make a similar decision when I left college - I didn't really suit glasses but the risks and the initial cost pushed me towards contact lenses - which I consider the best of both worlds.

 

[matt]

Get some Lindberg frames - they really make it worthwhile wearing glasses!

I would not have eye surgery - I much prefer the tried and tested "accessory" to tampering with my body unnecessarily.

 

[RogerS]

Your eyes continue to change as you age. I can get contacts or glasses to compensate for this.

Sometimes the eyes can go 'back the other way' if you see what I mean or at least need a different sort of correction.

Can lasers put stuff back?

 

[ByronBlack]

laser surgery has a lot a lower success rating than is generally advertised. Optical Express are the biggest suppliers in europe since they bought out the boots division, and as a company that aren't all that IMO (I've worked for them).

Personally, I would say stick with glasses unless you are + or - 10.

Invest the money in a decent quality high-index lens (1.67 or 1.74) and a nice modern small frame, and your vision will be better than wearing either contacts or laser surgery.

Lindburg frames are massively over-priced. Your paying for the 'name'. The materials are no more advanced than some of the 'titanium' frames that you can buy of the shelf as ready-readers. However, the style is nice and they do look smart.

(I qualify all my statements, by saying i've been in the optical manufacturing industry for 10+ years). I've worked extensively with lindburg frames and even went on their brainswashing - erm sorry I mean 'training' courses - nice style but in my opinion, certainly not fantastic quality for what you pay for.

IMO the best made frames are the 'flexon' range from Marchon. The build quality is exceptional. Marchon are the company that make all the designer labels such as CK, Calvin, Nike etc.. although because of the name you pay a lot more for it.

Anyways, Laser is ok, it isn't fool-proof and can require multiple visits to get right. It will NOT correct your near vision as you get older as the muscles in your eye harden and no amount of surgery can fix this, and you'll still require reading glasses, so apart from vanity or extreme vision problems there is no real benefit.

 

[JFC]

Blimey and there was me drinking 8 pints to pull an ugly bird ! Give it 5 years and i can give my liver a rest :lol:

 

[mailee]

I was thinking of it a couple of years ago until I watched a documentary about it and it put me right off. They slice the lens open and then flap it back afterwards! :shock: I didn't like the idea of a sharp object disecting my eye, a Laser burning it yes but a knife...no way. :shock: Mind you as has been mentioned it would be no use for me at my age now anyway.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I didn't like the idea of a sharp object disecting my eye, a Laser burning it yes but a knife...no way. (

Yes, it's scary, but if the alternative is losing your sight, you'd treat it as a godsend.

Cheers
Steve
L 6/6 (6/12)
R 6/5 ( 6/300)

 

[mailee]

Oh yes I agree Steve, but just for the sake of not wearing glasses I would definitely think twice. I do wear glasses one pair for normal vision and another for reading/close up work. Sign of my age.

 

[MixedHerbs]

My favorite specs so far are very lightweight titanium that do not have hinges . I think the make is Silhouette The trouble is, I had a nap one day on the sofa and put my specs on the coffee table. I vaguely remember hearing a crunching noise and thought nothing of it - we had recently taken delivery of an English springer spaniel puppy and thought he was chewing a dog toy...

It's quite a challenge to drive wearing wonky specs. After a while, my eyes compensated for the tooth marks on the lenses.

Regards, Peter.

 

[nickson71]

My sister has had both eyes done using the laser treatment and she thinks it was the best thing she's had done ..................

 

[Terry Smart]

Hi All

Mandy had this done about 18 months ago; she'd been wearing contact lenses for years but found them inconvenient when she wanted to go swimming and also for other activities such as horse riding etc, so she decided to take the plunge and have them done.

To be honest although there was a marked improvement after the first procedure it wasn't as good as we all thought it should be, the clinic agreed and had another go (that sounds dreadful!) and this time they got it spot on and Mandy is delighted with the results.

One interesting thing they did do was give her what they called 'mono-vision'. Mandy's problem was in seeing things at a distance whereas her eyesight for nearby objects was superb; as they only corrected one eye the second time round she has the best of both worlds. When looking at things at a distance one eye takes over and for closeup work the other eye dominates; the brain works it all out so there's no conscious work involved, she was dubious about it but is really pleased with it.

Nothing in life is without risk, but it has certainly worked out for Mandy.

Having said all that, as was stated very early on, it is still likely that she will need glasses for reading when she gets older which is, I believe, practically inevitable for most people, me included in the last year or so!

 

[Vormulac]

My sister had worn glasses for about 15 years up until she had laser surgery a couple of years ago, the result after a considerable amount of discomfort was perfect vision in both eyes. She's 36 and a professional photographer. I'm short sighted in one eye, but I'm squeamish about letting anyone near my eyeball with a blade, so I'm happy to let my good eye correct for the other as it has done for the last 15 years or so (I do have glasses, but they give me the most shocking headaches, so I don't wear them).

 

[ByronBlack]

Vormulac - if you're getting headaches with the glasses then the prescription is wrong. I would get down to your opticians and have a new sight test done. Even if your prescription is small, chances are you'll have an astigmatism and a correct prescription should give you good vision without headaches.

 

[promhandicam]

Hi. just asked the opinion of my colleague who is a British born ophthalmologist who himself has had laser surgery and his advice is that for someone like yourself with presbyopia (long vision) laser surgery isn't recommended. What he would recommend is to have cataract surgery - what would be known as a clear lens extraction. This has a number of advantages - you wouldn't need cataract surgery in the future - you'd get good vision and wouldn't need to wear glasses at all (with laser surgery you'd still need glasses for reading). You would need to ensure that your surgeon has access to an IOL Master which is a non-contact optical device that measures the distance from the corneal vertex to the retinal pigment epithelium by partial coherence interferometry. It is able to measure consistently to within ±0.02 mm or better. 8)

If measurement using an IOL Master this isn't possible then it isn't worth considering. Once measured up you would have Phaco surgery where a small 3mm incision is made and an IOL (intra ocular lens) is implanted. This is done as day surgery. Neil, my colleague thinks that in 5 - 10 years this will be the preferred method for correcting myopia in western countries - especially for younger people at around 20 - 25.

I hope this helps - if not you then someone else.

Steve

Note - I don't work for Carl Zeiss Meditec - makers of the IOL Master but I do work for an NGO involved in prevention of blindness and disability http://www.cbm.org