If you currently wear glasses, you may be curious if lasik eye surgery could work for you.  After all, wouldn’t it be terrific to do away with your contacts or reading aids forever, and be able to use only your own eyes?

With the advent of this cutting edge procedure, more and more people are doing precisely that!

Tens of thousands of patients have already undergone this treatment option, with more choosing to do so every day.

However, you may wonder if its right for you and what risks are involved.  To help you with your decision, let’s look at lasik eye surgery in more detail below.

Lasik stands for the highly technical term Laser Assisted In Situ Keratomileusis.

It is actually very close to refractive laser eye surgery, and it works well in most cases.

While you will have to discuss your particular situation with your doctor, most eye problems can be improved if not fixed all together!  There are some important exceptions to this rule, and lasik is not for everyone.

If you are under 18 years old or pregnant, your doctor will probably advise you to wait.

However, that said, lasik eye surgery is an amazing technological advance!  Not only is it an outpatient procedure, in most cases it is totally pain free.

At most you will feel some minor discomfort, and your recovery time is usually excellent.

Other procedures, such as photorefractive keratectomy, can be much more involved and take longer to heal from when finished.

What can you expect when you go to the office?  If you are having lasik performed, you will usually be released the same day!

While you will need someone to drive you home, this surgical method is the fastest of its kind.  Also, with the quick healing time that is needed, you can be back to your normal routine in no time at all.

In terms of success rate, about 80 percent of patients who elect to have lasik eye surgery performed have a positive outcome.

Clearly, this is a wonderful procedure that you should consider if you have a correctable vision problem!

The history of lasik eye surgery is a relatively short one, as it was invented only 21 years ago.  Dr. Lucio Buratto from Italy came up with this revolutionary method, and was assisted by Ionnis Pallikaris from Greece.

Essentially they combined two other more complicated surgeries together:  photorefractive keratectomy and keratomileusis.

They were able to take the best features of these procedures, and reduce the complications and negative outcomes which patients experienced.

If at this point you are sold on the benefits of lasik eye surgery, what is your next step?  Well, first off you will have a consult with whatever doctor you choose.

At this appointment they will map your cornea, which will give the doctor a good idea of what needs to be corrected.

You may be asked to take an antibiotic for several days leading up to the procedure, which will help to ward off any infections.

On the day of your surgery, you will simply go into the office.  They will not put you under for the procedure, and you will be awake during the entire event.

However, you won’t feel any pain, and you will usually be given anesthetic eye drops or possibly a low dose sedative to keep you from feeling any discomfort.

Once your eyes are sufficiently numb, the doctor will begin to correct the shape of your cornea using a laser.  While you may worry about damage being done to your eye from improper cuts, this is a very low risk.  Why?  Nowadays the laser is guided by computer, to remove this possibility.

That’s it!  You’ve now successfully had lasik eye surgery, and in nearly every case you will go immediately home.  As, you can see this is an easy process, and can be accomplished with minimal inconvenience to your schedule.

You will need to go slowly for the next several days, to give your eyes a chance to heal.  The doctor will instruct you on how best to do so, and you may want to schedule your surgery for a time when you can take a few days off in a row.  Even having it done on a Friday can work, as this will give you several days over the weekend to recover.

So, just think you could go into the office with glasses in the morning, and come out without them in the afternoon!  No other optical procedure can boast such astounding results.

If you have a vision problem which could be corrected by lasik eye surgery, why not visit your doctor today?  You could be on the path to seeing without any assistance, faster than you might have thought possible!