Lasik Eye Surgery Suitability: How To Know If You Are Suitable For Lasik Eye Surgery

LASIK eye surgery provides a safe and highly effective alternative to corrective lenses for the majority of individuals who suffer from common vision problems.  It is not, however, suitable for everyone.  In order to determine whether or not LASIK is suitable for you, it is important to consult an optometrist in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of its benefits, risks, and what expectations are realistic for your particular case.  In general, however, LASIK is suitable for people who are at least 18 years old, and suffer from common refractive errors such as nearsightedness, some farsightedness, astigmatism, or any combination thereof.

It is also essential that you do not suffer from any medical conditions that might adversely affect the benefits of LASIK surgery, or the ability to recover from it.  This applies to both vision related, and non-vision related medical conditions. LASIK is not suitable for women who are pregnant, or nursing, due to the fact that eye shape has the potential to be temporarily altered during hormonal changes.  Another requirement is that you have had stable vision through an optical prescription for two or more years.  Additionally, your eyesight must fall within a correctable range– extremely severe vision problems may not be treatable with LASIK.

Having assessed the benefits and risks, the next step in ascertaining your suitability for LASIK eye surgery is having a thorough examination conducted by a professional optometrist, along with an in-depth analysis of your medical history.  Ultimately, only a trained optometrist can make the final determination as to whether or not you are a suitable candidate for LASIK surgery.  Your optometrist will determine your suitability based on a variety of factors.  In addition to measuring your quality of eyesight, and degree of optical error, your optometrist will examine the thickness of your cornea, as some corneas are too thin to withstand LASIK.

Another determining factor of your suitability is the size of your pupil. Pupils that are naturally large may potentially be larger than the corneal area that is treated with LASIK surgery.  Similarly, naturally dry eyes may effect the determination of your suitability for LASIK, as extremely dry eyes may cause a delay in healing, and the condition of chronically dry eyes may be exacerbated by LASIK eye surgery.  All of these variables in determining your suitability can be assessed using various advanced diagnostic tests, such as corneal mapping, and wavefront analysis.  Advances in LASIK eye surgery are constantly occurring, and some of the disqualifications for LASIK suitability are likely to become obsolete in the future.