An Overview of Refractive Eye Surgery

Refractive eye surgery is a very broad term and covers several types of surgery for correcting eye problems. Many people don't realise that there is life after glasses, and in just a few shorts weeks you can have eyes that provide perfect sight. There are many reasons why a person might need to wear glasses, but the majority of the problems can be corrected with some form of refractive surgery. If you want an overview of refractive eye surgery then you have come to the right place. Read on to find out all about the different treatments available for correcting eye problems. To start with there is laser eye surgery available. A whole range of conditions can be treated with this type of surgery. Lasik or "Laser in situ Keratomileusis" breaks down further still however. Advanced surface ablation is one form of lasik surgery that is done without having to make an incision in the cornea. This is only done in a rare number of cases. Another form of lasik surgery is blended vision. During this procedure one eye may be treated for shortsightedness whilst the other is treated for longsightedness. When a laser is used to make an incision on the cornea, this is known as Intralasik surgery and Wavefront is a tailor made form of the procedure that involves creating a 3D map of the patient's eye before carrying out a custom made laser eye surgery plan. Another common type of refractive eye surgery is Lasek surgery. This is used for similar problems as those helped by lasik surgery, but usually when the problems are less severe. For example if the cornea only needs slightly flattening or slighting curving to correct near and farsightedness problems. It is also suitable for people who have thin corneas. Lasek is short for "laser assisted epithelial keratomileusis". Rather than creating a flap with an incision the fine surface of the cornea is instead loosened and folded back. An excimer laser is then used to reshape the cornea and therefore correct the refractive error in the eye. There is slightly longer recovery periods with lasek surgery than lasik although not usually more than a week or two.