I’m thinking about ditching my pair of glasses. If I were to go to Lasik for example and have the treatment, is it possible that a few years from then my vision can go back the way it was? Btw, im about 5.3 on both sides and it’s pretty stable for a year or two now. All serious answers will be appreciated. Thank you.
LASIK will correct your vision to as good as it was corrected with glasses…so if you see 20/20 with your glasses on…there is a very good change you will see 20/20 after LASIK.
Most people will, once they hit their 40s, need reading glasses. This is because the lens, not the cornea, stiffens with age…people who haven’t had LASIK have this same problem.
With the exception of most likely needing reading glasses starting in your 40s, unless a totally different eye problem surfaces that causes decreased vision retinal degenerative disorders, cataracts), you will have the same vision as you have once the healing process has finished postoperatively.
I had PRK a little over three weeks ago…and my vision is almost to 20/20 in my right eye and 20/20+ in my left. I’m still healing. My doctor expects that once my healing course is through, going by what I’m seeing now, I will be able to attain the 20/20 vision that I had achieved with contacts. I know that in a few years, I will need reading glasses, but so do most people.
The regression you mention…it isn’t the same as needing to have glasses with a -5.3 strength that you have now…it is just needing a little + factor to help with reading.
As with any surgery, there are risks, postop complications, and there are certain criteria that need to be met prior to becoming a candidate (no glaucoma, no cataracts, no existing corneal diseases like Fuchs’, corneal thickness must be of a certain value to name a few).
I personally can live with the fact that eventually I will need readers, but compared to the cost of my glasses and contacts, that’s nothing.
The link below is to articles written by ophthalmologists. Choose the ‘Myopia’ links to read more about how each of the technologies available help, what their contraindications (who shouldn’t have the surgery) are, risks, complications, and expected outcomes based on studies that have been performed. If you are farsighted (hyperopic), choose those links.
In short, assuming your eye health stays as good as it is today, you won’t regress to needing the same strength glasses you have right now. The main reasons for visual decline after LASIK have to do with other, non-refractive conditions like age-related macular degeneration, degenerative corneal problems, cataracts, and other ocular diseases that are out there that tend to affect us in our older age.
I hope this helps. Laser surgery has come a long way since 1995 and the long-term outcomes are promising. Less than 5% of surgery recipients has a continuing complication 3 months or longer after surgery…and it really depends on your surgeon…the better education, the more experience the better…do not go by cost alone…I’m a strong believer that you get what you pay for…and vice versa.
my grandmother had it, her eyesight was pretty good. she just wore glasses to read. but it just depends…
If you are more than 18 years old and your power has not increased for two years, for your eye sight -5.3, after Lasik, your vision will be very normal. Go for Wavefront LASIK.
A slightly larger percentage of subjects treated with wavefront LASIK achieved 20/20 vision without glasses or contact lenses compared to subjects treated with conventional LASIK.
If you use contact lenses:
Most ophthalmologists require that soft contact lenses be dis-continued at least 3 days and rigid contact lenses 2 to 3 weeks prior to the evaluation.
LASIK stands for Laser-Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis and is a procedure that permanently changes the shape of the cornea, the clear covering of the front of the eye, using an excimer laser. A knife, called a microkeratome, is used to cut a flap in the cornea. A hinge is left at one end of this flap. The flap is folded back revealing the stroma, the middlesection of the cornea. Pulses from a computer-controlled laser vaporize a portion of the stroma and the flap is replaced.
Most Lasik and All-Laser Lasik patients experience regression within the first few weeks after surgery, while the surface ablation techniques of PRK, LASEK, and Epi-Lasik may require additional time until regression has settled down. For myopic patients, regression usually occurs within the first one to three months after surgery. Hyperopic patients may experience regression for a longer period of time. In all cases, it is reasonable to expect regression stop within the normal six month healing period.
Although regression seems to be more prevalent the higher the refractive error, regression can occur in anyone.
This occurs mostly in myopic patients who have more than 6.0 diopters of refractive error.
For you , with less than -6, over correction will be made, and after 3 to 6 months, regression will stop and you will not have any problem.