Your Suitable Prescription for Laser Eye Surgery

Laser eye surgery is a widely popular treatment, more than 40 milion people has received laser eye surgery by 2017.This surgery will help you to improve your eyesight and reduce possible complications related to other means of vision correction like dry eye with contact lenses or headache with glases. It can give you freedom for engaging in all kinds of activities, events and sports that you cannot even think of doing without wearing glasses or contact lenses.

Here are some questions that will help you to know if you are the right candidate for performing laser eye surgery. Also, you can consult with our experienced doctors to know your eligibility criteria for the procedure.

• Are you above 18 years?
• Are you in good health condition?
• Can you see properly when wearing glasses?

If your answer to these questions is “yes”, then its likely you may be suitable for the treatment.

There are certain factors you need to consider when determining if you are the right candidate for the treatment. One of them is the health condition of your eyes.

Reasons you may not be suitable for laser eye surgery

The most reliable way to know is by going through a comprehensive consultation with an eye expert. This way, you can get a clear idea of whether you are suitable for a Laser Eye Surgery or not. Some reasons you might not be suitable for the treatment are the following:

1. Stability of your prescription – It is expected that you maintain a stable prescription for at least 6 months before eligible for laser eye surgery or before undergoing the procedure. So, teenagers and young people are not considered to be a suitable candidate for treatment.
2. The thickness of your corneas – LASIK is the most common laser procedure which requires a minimum amount of cornea thickness for suitability. Irregular cornea(surface of your eyes)or thinner cornea may be eligible for other types of refractive laser surgeries like PRK, LASEK of SMILE.
3. The size of your pupil – If your pupils are abnormally large, undergoing LASIK surgery procedure might increase the risk of experiencing side effects such as halos and glares. Hence, performing sufficient pupilometry testing in the screening phase is of vital importance. Modern laser with WaveFront technology allow larger pupils to be treatable with laser eye surgery.
4. Your age - Your age is an important factor in your choices of refractive surgery ,your eye soecialist will evalute this factor according to your visual needs and offer you the most suitable option.
5. Pregnancy or lactating – Some kind of hormonal shifts at the time of pregnancy may lead to fluctuation and trigger eye symptoms. The medications used both during and after the treatment might be risky for your child. Due to these reasons, it is advisable to wait for several months after lactation and pregnancy to undergo the treatment. 
6. Your overall eye health – It is important for the doctors to know how stable your eye health is. Only then, they will be able to know how suitable you are for laser eye surgery. For example, when you have dry eye, cataracts or glaucoma, there are different eye conditions that may have an impact on your stability. Some of these are the following:

• Blepharitis or eye infections – Your eyes should be completely clear of infection.
• Increased internal eye pressure – Eye pressure should be kept under control.
• Epilepsy, MS – This will depend on the status of your health condition.
• Diabetes – It is okay if you can keep it under control with healthy retinas.
• Very large pupils who have a higher correction.
• Your prescription is low and you do not need astigmatism.
• A prism or squint that cannot be corrected with contact lenses
• Corneal dystrophy
• Iritis
• Herpes of the eye
• Blindness in one eye or partial sightedness

      7. Your overall health – Other than good eye health, it is also important to improve your general health condition. For example, you might not be suitable to undergo laser eye surgery when you suffer from:

• Lupus, SLE
• Cornea dystrophy
• Keratoconus
• Optic nerve damage
• large cornea scar

In general, the better and more stable your health condition might be, the greater your chances will be of becoming a good candidate.

Does your prescription fall under the treatable range?

In order to be eligible for LASIK, your prescription should fulfil the following criteria:

• Up to 12 dioptres of nearsightedness
• Up to 6 dioptres of astigmatism
• Up to 6 diaopter of long sightedness

If your prescription passes beyond these levels, its most likely that other types of treatment including lens surgery, ICL or phacik implants be your beset options.Here at Optimal Vision our expert take you through extensive refractive assessment to offer you the most reliable and safest surgery for your condition.

What will happen if your prescription is not meant for laser eye surgery?

Truly speaking, although laser eye surgery has a wide range of treatment but still there are some who fall beyond suitability, this is because the higher the prescription, the more tissue will have to be removed to be remodeled.

Today, LASIK is considered to be one of the main options available for correcting refractive errors with high efficacy and reliability however other options exist depending on your eye condition and visual requirement.

Thus, it is extremely important to find out if you are the right candidate for laser eye surgery. You may book an appointment with our friendly team of clinic coordinators or visit us for your