Lasik Eye Surgery: The Complete Guide
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We offer qualified Lasik patients 0% interest, 24-month financing. Ask our team to apply.
Before we begin this complete guide on Lasik eye surgery, here’s a statistic you won’t hear many Lasik surgery centers talk about:
We tell about 3 out of every 10 of our Lasik candidates that they do not need Lasik surgery!
Is Lasik right for you?
Why?
It’s simple. At Pullman Family Eye Care, we won’t approve you for Lasik eye surgery unless you’re an excellent candidate for the procedure.
What does that mean?
Determining how to achieve your best-possible lifelong vision is always our priority. If that’s Lasik, we’ll tell you. If there’s a better option for your eyes, we’ll tell you that too.
Ok, now onto our complete guide:
Lasik Eye Surgery at Pullman Eye Care
What is Lasik?
Lasik stands for laser in situ keratomileusis.
Your eyes both have a thin, protective, outer and clear layer that’s designed to bend (or refract) the light that enters your eye. They also act as filters against dirt, dust, germs, and even various ultraviolet light emitted from the sun.
Overtime, your cornea can degrade and lead to conditions such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. Your cornea’s curved shape can also be damaged by an infection, inflammation, or disease. Lasik is a surgical procedure that utilizes a laser to ultimately reshape the cornea of your eye.
LASIK was first approved for public use by the FDA in 1998. Since then it has continued to grow in popularity along with the number of licensed and experienced Lasik surgeons available.
When it comes to your eyes, you should choose the best care available. Your vision is too important for anything less.
That’s why we’ve worked hard to make Lasik at Pullman Family Eye Care an experience that stands out from the rest.
Your Local,
Experienced Lasik Surgeon
Some Lasik clinics operate on the “fly-in-fly-out” model.
In this scenario, a Lasik surgeon would fly in on the morning of your procedure, performs as many procedures as they can fit in one day, then fly back to where they live in the evening.
At Pullman Family Eye Care, we offer the exact opposite.
From your initial Lasik consultation, to your eye scans, surgery, and follow-up, you’ll be working directly with your Lasik surgeon Dr. Alyssa Hoehn.
We at Pullman Family Eye Care believe that our patients deserve a Lasik surgeon who will be there for the entire process, so that’s what we deliver.
Latest Laser Eye Surgery Technology
Some Lasik clinics attempt to cut costs or increase their profits by using outdated surgical equipment.
At Pullman Family Eye Care, we only offer Lasik with advanced iLasik technology.
Bladeless, wavefront-guided laser eye surgery, using two sophisticated state-of-the-art medical laser
What happens during a Lasik procedure?
The process starts with you looking at a blinking red light, which helps to keep your eye properly positioned. Your eyelids and eyelashes are then sterilized.
A wavefront eye-mapping technology is then used to create a detailed 3D map of the surface of your eye.
Bladeless
Our Lasik patients experience a completely-custom, bladeless, wavefront-guided laser eye surgery using two sophisticated state-of-the-art medical lasers.
The first of these medical lasers is the Femtosecond Laser, an ultra-fast laser that prepares the cornea for treatment by first creating a ultra-thin flap in your Epithelium. That flap, which is as thin as a human hair, is temporarily moved to the side.
The second medical laser, called the Excimer Laser, is an ultra-precise laser that then gently reshapes the inner surface of your cornea using the digital information obtained from your 3D wavefront map. The laser can either flatten or steepen the curve of your cornea depending on the conditions that you’re being treated for.
Once the adjustment is complete, the flap is placed back over your cornea, completely covering and protecting the treated area. Your cornea will start bonding the flap back together. The entire process takes about 10 minutes to complete per eye.
After surgery, most patients report that their eyes feel pretty normal by the next day. Typically, you’ll have a followup appointment with your eye surgeon the day after surgery, to make sure that everything’s healing properly. While most patients experience an immediate improvement in vision right after surgery, your eyes will continue to heal, and your vision may improve for up to 6-months after surgery.
Making Lasik Eye Surgery More Affordable
The cost of Lasik eye surgery
While Lasik typically isn’t completely covered by most insurance plans, the team at Pullman Family Eye Care can help make Lasik an affordable choice through a combination of savings, incentives and 0% financing for qualified candidates.
Lasik surgery vs buying contacts
Consider this: the average person who buys and wears contacts will spend over $20,000 on contacts in their lifetime.
With Lasik, that long-term cost can be reduced dramatically while improving your eyesight much more effectively.
24-Month 0% APR Financing
We offer qualified Lasik patients 0% interest, 24-month financing. Whatever your financial needs are, we make it easy to afford to invest in your vision.
Common questions about Lasik eye surgery
What are the most common side-effects and risks of Lasik?
Lasik and PRK have excellent safety profiles and very high success rates. But, as with any surgical procedure, there are some risks involved, and some patients experience side-effects following the procedure. It’s important to know and understand these risks and potential side-effects.
We recommend reviewing a publication titled, “Is Lasik for Me?” from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. An overview of the procedures risk factors, side-effects and complications starts on page 5.
If I have Lasik now, will I still need reading glasses later in life?
Yes. Lasik is designed to correct your vision now, but unfortunately it doesn’t stop the natural aging process. As part of that aging process, many people will need reading glasses for close-up vision when they get older, including those who have Lasik.
Is it possible that I’ll need a retreatment or enhancement after my initial Lasik procedure?
According to several different studies, somewhere between 5% and 15% of patients who undergo Lasik will need a retreatment or enhancement to achieve their desired vision.
These rates are higher for people who are farsighted, people who have higher degrees of refractive error or people who are older than 50.
Do you offer conventional (non-wavefront) or traditional-bladed Lasik procedures?
No. You only ever get two eyes, and we believe it’s worth giving them the best care possible. For Lasik, that means using the most advanced techniques and equipment available, and settling for nothing less.
Will I need to wear glasses or contacts after Lasik?
According to clinical studies, 94% of iLasik patients see 20/20 or better. That means the vast majority of iLasik patients will not need glasses for everyday vision.
Where are Pullman Family Eye Care’s Lasik procedures performed?
All our laser eye surgeries are performed in our Lasik suite in our Moscow office (get directions), and your consultation and aftercare can happen either in Moscow, or Pullman.
What types of corrective laser eye surgery do you offer?
We offer both Wavefront-guided iLasik and advanced PRK (photorefractive keratectomy). During your Lasik consultation, Dr. Hoehn will help you decide which option is best for your eyes.
Am I a good candidate for Lasik?
To start out, here are a few things that can disqualify you from being a good Lasik candidate:
- If you’re under the age of 18. Before it’s safe to correct your vision, it has to be stable. Many people’s vision is still changing under the age of 18.
- If you’re pregnant or nursing. Pregnancy and nursing can cause temporary, unpredictable changes in your cornea.
- If you have cataracts. There are still great options to correct your vision along with your cataract surgery, but Lasik isn’t a good option for patients with cataracts.
- If you have dry-eyes. Dry eyes can affect both the accuracy of your pre-operative measurements, and your post-Lasik healing. That’s why it’s important for patients with dry eyes to successfully treat their condition before undergoing Lasik surgery.