Basically, LASIK is a simple procedure. It can be explained in one sentence:

• A laser reshapes the eye’s cornea to make it flatter, steeper, or rounder to correct nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism.

The laser does reshaping by vaporizing tiny pieces of targeted corneal tissue. It does not cut, but just breaks carbon bonds, and that disperses the tissue, leaving a nicely sealed surface behind. The eye is first numbed and you do not feel any heat or discomfort – just a bit of pressure at times.

Before the laser work is started, your eye surgeon makes a thin flap of corneal tissue and folds it back to give the laser access to a deeper level. After treatment, he or she replaces the flap and it heals by itself. The corneal surface is continually discarding cells and replacing them with new ones, and this process integrates the flap back into the cornea.

Custom LASIK

When LASIK was first approved by the FDA in the mid nineties, it was not Custom LASIK. What makes traditional LASIK into Custom LASIK is the way your diagnosis is done. Traditional LASIK simply uses the same diagnosis that is done for eyeglasses or contacts, whereas Custom LASIK is based on a Wavefront diagnosis.

What does that mean? It means that Custom LASIK gives you a far more precise vision correction than traditional LASIK. It corrects more than just nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. These three conditions are called Lower Order Aberrations (LOAs). Custom LASIK also corrects your Higher Order Aberrations, which are very subtle contour variations that affect the quality of your vision, especially of your night vision.

Wavefront diagnosis sends a beam of special light to each eye and receives it back again. When it returns, it has a different shape to its front end, created by the microscopic contours of your two eyes. Those two shapes are recorded in the Wavefront system and used as the basis for your vision correction on each eye. The shapes show the exact ways in which your eyes vary from a perfect sphere. Your eye surgeon will deploy the laser to smooth out those tiny irregularities while at the same time correcting your LOAs.

To learn more, please see our Patient Education section and LASIK Vision Correction FAQ. If you would like to speak with one of our highly-qualified eye surgeons, please contact us today.