I am 31 years old and got my first prescription in 1990 at five years old.A recent test pre-op at the clinic i was unable to identify the largest letter with both eyes on the snellen eye chart (20/400), but i would guess my eyes 20/600 both and maybe 20/800 singular.I also had astigmatism of -2.00 or so in each eye.

One day after surgery my left eye is 20/15 and right 20/20, together was not checked but most likely 20/15.Five days later i still have some irritation and i have noticed halos on night vision but it's not too bad.

Personally i would recommend it if your vision is worse than 20/200 uncorrected, you play a lot of sports esp contact or you enjoy hobbies like scuba diving or snorkelling where it is hard to wear corrective lenses.

micronesia

United States24773 Posts

April 30 2016 00:07 GMT

Congrats on the improved eyesight! I'm considering getting lasik (or whatever the alternatives are) in the future, but I have some reservations.

I'm the same age as you but didn't need glasses until about 2005 (I only need them for distance; I can read books fine without glasses). Since then, my vision has slowly but surely been creeping further away from 20/20 and I think I'm nearly as bad on eye exams as you were before your surgery now. One problem is, I don't think my prescription has stabilized so it doesn't make sense to have the surgery.

I also have heard some things about the surgery that I haven't researched yet:

1) Is it true that the surgery will accelerate your need for reading glasses?
2) Is it true that the surgery will make it harder for you to be treated for cataracts in the future?
3) Other drawbacks or potential drawbacks?

iPlaY.NettleS

Australia4416 Posts

April 30 2016 00:18 GMT

There are drawbacks, some people get side effects like dry eyes and in rare cases the flap dislodges (during the recovery process only), there is an overcorrection/undercorrection (less likely with more modern equipment) also ghosting and halos like i mentioned i have at night time but these will go away after a couple months.

I am not sure about your first two questions but i know that the cornea is reshaped during the surgery and will always be very slightly thinner than before.There is another type of laser surgery called i think PRK which is flapless, it has a longer recovery time but may be better for possible long term complications.

The surgery only lasted about 15 minutes and was relatively painless.Good luck whichever way you decide.

pebble444

Italy2503 Posts

April 30 2016 08:09 GMT

If your eyes haven' t stabilized then yeah, better wait;
I' m not sure which options are available, the one i know is this one:
The process is fairly simple; the surgery doesn' t actually modify your cornea, that does it itself; what it does is create the way for your eyes to re-adjust, creating small little cuts, your eyes will readjust and re align. My father did the surgery 15 years ago and since then he didn' t need glasses anymore; Reading glasses yeah, since 2 years, that might be just cause his age, not really sure;
This tecnique is very old, it was invented in the 1920' s in Russia, and done manually; Since the goverment realised it would cost less to apply surgery than supply a lifetime of glasses to people; if you notice people in the east Europe don' t wear glasses, people who lived under communism, that is why;

Yorbon

Netherlands4272 Posts

April 30 2016 09:14 GMT

Most horror stories I know involving eye surgery also involve doctors from relatively exotic places consulted for monetary reasons. In my impression it is very safe.

DarkPlasmaBall

United States45937 Posts

April 30 2016 12:08 GMT

That's awesome! I've been thinking about getting laser eye surgery (my eyes without contact lenses are pretty bad, my right eye has an astigmatism, etc.).

Fumanchu

Canada669 Posts

April 30 2016 14:55 GMT

I got PRK about a year ago and it's awesome! I mean, the first 3 days are absolute hell where I did nothing but use freezing drops and writhe in pain, but oh man after that, it's sublime. For me personally the only negative thing is a slight halo affect around lights at night.

It is odd however how quickly you get used to not wearing glasses. After the first two weeks it felt like I had never worn glasses.

LuckyFool

United States9015 Posts

April 30 2016 16:46 GMT

I was considering this about two years ago as well but my vision has fluctuated a bit as well and they recommend you don't do it if you've had to change your prescription within the last year at least. I'll probably consider it again at some point in the next year or two after we see how my prescription goes.

There are some side effects and risks but generally 99% of the people I know who have had it done say it's great. One thing that was a bit curious to me when I was researching a couple years ago are almost no eye doctors themselves actually have the procedure done. Many of them choose to wear glasses/corrective lenses.

Bojas

Netherlands2397 Posts

April 30 2016 18:12 GMT

I've had it and it was one of the best decisions in my life. Wether you have contacts or glasses, having something on your head/eyes is very annoying.

There aren't really any noticeable side effects for me. I'm not sure what the english name is but I had the version without the "flap". After it was done my eyes hurt like hell the night after it, but the pain was practically over after a day. It's been a year and still I think about how great it is not having to clean contacts every day.

One thing that was a bit curious to me when I was researching a couple years ago are almost no eye doctors themselves actually have the procedure done. Many of them choose to wear glasses/corrective lenses.

In the clinic I went to, everyone that had bad eyesight had it done, including the surgeons.

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