LASIK vs. Advanced Surface Ablation

Many patients at North Shore Eye Care in Smithtown New York in Suffolk County of Long Island know that they want laser vision correction by our board certified lasik doctors and lasik surgeons.  Patients arrive for their free lasik consultation with questions about which laser eye surgery procedure is best and safest for them.  Our board certified eye doctors and eye surgeons, Dr. Jeffrey Martin, Dr. Lawrence Zweibel and Dr. John Mauro are pleased to answer your questions and keep our Long Island patients informed about their decision.

Which Laser Vision Correction Procedure is Right For Me ?

 

There are basically two laser vision correction procedures that are commonly used.  There is lasik which describes a procedure that involves making a flap in the superficial layers of the cornea and then placing the laser vision correction ablation under the flap.  Patients like lasik because the visual recovery is quick and painless in most cases.  Lasik patients drive to our Smithtown office the very next day in most every case.  Our patients have enjoyed the very best in lasik technology including all blade-free or bladeless lasik with Intralase, the safest and most precise way to make a flap.  Our lasik surgeons also use Customvue custom lasik corrections using the wavescan to create a waveprint or wavemap.  A wavemap is like a fingerprint of your visual system.  In this way, every correction is unique for that patient allowing us the most accurate results possible.  This correction automatically centers and automatically tracks your eye movements during the lasik laser eye surgery and also uses iris registration.  Iris registration uses the unique landmarks of your iris to precisely place the vision correction procedure.  About 70 % of our patients at North Shore Eye Care qualify for lasik.

 

There are certain clinical findings that might make a patient better suited for a surface laser vision correction procedure.  Advanced surface ablation, also called PRK, lasek, epilasik, or photorefractive keratectomy, delivers the laser vision correction part of lasik right on the surface of the cornea without a flap.  By not making a flap, the correction is placed more superficial in the cornea.  This may be safer for patients with thin corneas, irregular corneas, high prescriptions, dry eyes and a few other clinical conditions.  Surface laser vision correction delivers the same excellent results, but there can be more discomfort in the first few days.  The final visual result arrives less quickly as well.  Our doctors tell our surface laser eye surgery patients that they will get the same results as lasik, but they have wait longer and will have more postoperative discomfort in most cases.  Surface laser vision correction is more advantageous when staying more superficial in the cornea is important.  About 30 % of the patients at North Shore Eye Care in Long Island New York have surface laser vision correction.