Maintaining realistic expectations of LASIK outcomes is crucial to ensuring the overall experience is successful. It is reasonable to expect that vision will be clearer and crisper after surgery than before. However, it is not realistic to expect to be completely free of glasses or contacts forever. Read on as the team at Bochner Eye Institute clarifies what this means.
LASIK Permanently Changes the Shape of the Cornea
LASIK permanently reshapes the cornea to improve the imperfections that cause nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. By eliminating these imperfections, LASIK improves the cornea’s focusing power so it can better bend, or refract, light entering the eye onto the retina. After surgery, the cornea cannot go back to its original shape. In that sense, LASIK improvements are considered permanent.
The majority of patients are able to enjoy many years of clear, crisp vision, and either do not need glasses or contacts at all, or need them significantly less than they did before surgery (e.g., only to perform certain tasks or in certain lighting conditions).
However, LASIK has nothing to do with age-related changes that affect other parts of the optical system that are critical to clear sight (such as the eye’s lens). LASIK will neither delay or accelerate the rate at which the eye ages.
Age-Related Changes Can Impair Vision, Regardless of LASIK
Around the age of 40, the normally thin, flexible lens starts to lose its elasticity. This occurs whether a person has had LASIK or not. As the lens hardens, it becomes difficult for it to focus on nearby objects. This is known as presbyopia, and it can make reading and performing up-close tasks challenging. Reading glasses are usually needed for people with presbyopia to see nearby objects clearly.
Later in life, the normally clear lens can develop cloudy areas, or cataracts, that cause blurry or distorted vision. As with presbyopia, whether a person had LASIK when they were younger has no bearing on whether they develop cataracts.
Speak to the Team at Bochner Eye Institute
The best way to learn more about expected LASIK outcomes and determine what is right for you at this point in your life is to consult with a trusted ophthalmologist about your options. To book an appointment with the team at Bochner Eye Institute, please call or email us today.