Lasik eye surgery – one of the most popular elective procedures performed today – continues to grow in popularity as more and more people choose to leave their eyeglasses and contact lenses in the dust and embrace clearer vision through advanced surgical procedures.
The Lasik procedure is one that had its start in a myriad of technological breakthroughs dating back to the late 1940s but did not come together into the procedure we know today until 1990. The Lasik procedure as we know it today was first performed in the United States in 1991.
Lasik itself stands for Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis and is a combination of several technologies developed throughout the years. It essence, Lasik is refractive eye surgery wherein corrections are made to the way in which our eyes refract – or bend – light.
In a normally functioning eye, light is received through the lens of the eye – the segment located directly behind the colored part – or iris - of the eye. Once the lens receives light it then refracts or bends to the retina of the eye – found in the grouping of cells lining the back of the eye. From there, the retina converts these light signals into a message that it can deliver to the optic nerve in our brain. The optic nerve receives these signals as a visual image or picture.
Through heredity, illness, injury, or aging our eyes can experience refractive difficulties in the way of nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, among other conditions. When this occurs light is not refracted properly and eventually the message or signal that the optic nerve receives is translated into a blurry image.
During the Lasik procedure surgeons use laser technology to resurface the cornea – the transparent covering of the eye – thus clearing the way for crisper, cleaner refraction of light. The Lasik procedure should always begin with the proper choosing of a surgical center through comprehensive research. The surgeon who will perform the procedure will ordinarily begin with one or two pre-operative visits during which time candidacy for the procedure is determined and overall health is assessed.
The Lasik procedure itself begins with the numbing of the eye with the use of eye drops. Once the eye is numbed, the patient is asked to lie on his/her back and the eye itself is held open with a speculum that is placed on the upper and lower eyelids. The eye is then immobilized with the use of a corneal suction ring. Once the eye is immobilized the surgeon makes a very small incision in the top layer of the cornea in order to create a flap.
The flap is then folded back to reveal the mid-section of the cornea – known as the stroma. The surgeon then used low-powered laser technology to resurface the stroma after which the flap is replaced over the eye. The procedure itself takes very little time – usually no more than 10 minutes for each eye.
Healing begins immediately and happens naturally. Most patients report little to no discomfort during the Lasik procedure and only mild discomfort following it – which generally disappears within 24 hours following the surgery.
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